


Thinking Twice

by 1simp_queen1



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV), Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 38,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24745318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1simp_queen1/pseuds/1simp_queen1
Summary: Alexandra is what you could call a real-life Renesmee Cullen. Only difference, there's no Jacob. Or so she thought. Half-vampire and half-human Alexandra Volturi has spent all her life hating werewolves and Lycans, not for the usual vampire-werewolf hate, not at all, it is just a personal opinion. But it all has to change when she ends up being the erasthai to one of the most powerful Lycans. A bet between them and their friends is placed. They will probably fall in love but that's not their only issue.
Relationships: R - Relationship
Kudos: 1





	1. Introduction/Explanation of world

Ok, hi. So I'm a sucker for romance so be warned. As in my description said this will probably will be sappy and cliche. This would be my second story here and I'm in my element with supernatural stuff but if you want something to make an appearance let me know and ill consider it. My explanation coming up is pretty lengthy but please read it, it will help clear up a lot of doubt later on, especially with the whole lycan situation if you don't know much about them.

Now, to explain how this world works. It is a mix between The Vampire Diaries and Twilight but with lycans. The eye color changes like in Twilight. If you don't know how that works it pretty much means when their eyes are black they are hungry, when they are yellow they drank animal blood, and when red they drank human blood. They do not have the veiny things like in TVD but the feeding and transformation are the same, if they bite a human they will not become a vampire. Now for the sunlight part, I would have liked to have daylight rings but I'm not too sure about witches in this story so I have decided to go with the shining in the sun, sorry to disappoint. Another important detail is how they die, I want it to be dramatic so I don't want the stake to the heart, like in Twilight they need to be ripped apart and burned. 

The werewolf thing works like Twilight, when vampires are around their wolf comes out, they are more like shapeshifters in the form of wolves, meaning they can morph whenever. Like TVD silver does NOT affect them, but wolfsbane does. The only way to kill lycans is by riping their spine out, which is very hard to do since they are strong, fast, and heal quick. Unlike both series, here werewolves have mates. Because I know a lot of people don't know about lycans and how their "mating system" works I will explain. Lycans are a form of werewolves, but instead of going in all fours, they walk. When transformed into lycans they are way faster and stronger than any regular werewolf, to put it simply, in their human forms they are a little bit less strong than werewolves in wolf form so when transformed that is intensified. As known, werewolves and vampires are supposed to be very good looking. Now, since lycans are just more than werewolves in general, they are way beyond that. Werewolves age way slower than humans when they reach the age of 18, this is also the age of when their wolf is finally able to find their mate that can be either another werewolf or it could be a human. Lycans age even slower than werewolves meaning that instead of living hundreds of years they can live for thousands. Lycans don't have a mate that they will for sure find at one point, they have erasthais which is like a mate but they are not sure to find them and since they live for so long it can take them a while. Erasthais can be whatever creature but once marked they transform into a lycan to be able to mate. So I guess that has its pros.

I'm so sorry that this was so long but I felt that all of that was very important for the plot if anything else confuses anyone please let me know and one way or another I will try to explain.


	2. ~1~

"Alexandra start getting ready for school!" I heard my mom scream from downstairs. So damn loud

I look at my clock and notice it's already 6:30 AM, I started watching Hunter x Hunter yesterday at night and pretty much binged more than half of it last night. Didn't sleep one minute, not that I really need it being part vampire and all, but I still like to act normal sometimes.

"Oh well, I'll finish this later" I close my computer as I hear my door open

"Sunshine, do you feel like having breakfast today?"

"Do you have enough time to make me crepes dad?" I go over and give him a kiss on the cheek

"On the way, also no crop tops please"

Like if I would ever wear a crop top, "I have been told that for years and years of my life, you know I don't like it"

He raises his hand in surrender and leaves my room.

I put on some sweatpants and some shirt I found in my unnecessarily big closet. If I wanted to I could totally try to dress nice but I don't have the time or energy for that.

My best friend Samantha always says, _"If you don't dress nicely how do you expect for any of those beautiful eye candies of our school to approach us"_ as if I wanted those mutts to come near me

I follow my nose downstairs and sit at the counter

"So human or vampire last night?" I feel someone's tiny arms wrap around me

"Hi auntie" I turn around to see yellow eyes staring at me, "whatever do you mean by that? Human teenagers stay until 7 am binging shows too"

"Sure honey, say what you want. I don't get why you deny your nature so much"

"Half nature Aunt Ramona, and I don't deny it but since I've already lived 1,800 years as a vampire, why not spice it up and try living as a human for now"

"Hmmm, fine. Now finish eating I think I heard Samantha on my way back from my hunt"

With that, I stuff my mouth and run up to my room to get my bag. Good thing about being a vampire is that I'm naturally "pretty" so I don't have to worry about my makeup or hair or things like that.

I grab my bag, put my headphones in and head downstairs and out the door just as Sammy drives up to me.

"Every single time I see you in the mornings I get disappointed by those horrendous sweatpants," Sammy says as she looks me up and down and send me a pity look

"Oh shush Sammy, I only dress up once I finally meet a werewolf or lycan I stand or like"

"But you hate werewolves and lycans"

I send her a wink, "Exactly boo"

She rolls her eyes and starts driving like the maniac vampire she is. I like it

When we get to school we pull up to the designated parking lot for vampires that provides shade so the sun doesn't hit us. Since I'm only half-vampire I don't have to worry about shinning because it just looks like normal shine that I can cover up with foundation.

We get out of the car and start walking towards the school. The second we get inside my nose is hit by the awful smell of wet dog. Ok, I'm exaggerating it's not that bad but I have to keep up my appearances of hate towards them.

"Yo, Twilight, wait up"

I turn around and pin the owner of that voice by the neck.

"Listen to me you mutt," I almost growl out, "call me Twilight one more time and I won't fucking hesitate to snap your neck"

Everyone around us has stopped to look at what is happening but I couldn't care less, I hate when people call me Twilight. I have nothing against the series but once people started giving me nicknames like "Twilight" and "Renesmee" that was it.

Yes, my parent's stories is kind of like the one of the infamous movie. Human falls in love with vampire, vampire doesn't want to turn human into what he is, they make a deal through marriage, on their honeymoon they find out she is pregnant, they go back, she gives birth to half and half baby, human turns into a vampire. I will admit that even my living conditions are like those of the movies, I have a grandma and grandpa (my dad's "parents"), my Aunt Ramona and Uncle Chad (yes, he's a chad), my Aunt Jade and Uncle Gio (may he rest in peace). One big difference I'm very grateful for is that there was never a Jacob in my mother's life, meaning nobody had a wolfie claim on me. That wouldn't have worked out anyway.

My uncle got mutilated by a werewolf when I was little, I saw it happen and it was coming for me. That's where my hatred for their kind started. I found out a few years back that my family was much bigger than it is now, the reason it is so small now is due to lycans. My family wanted to leave this place after they got bored of staying here in the city but the lord that controls this part of the state prohibited them from doing so, even though we aren't werewolves, so they had nor right to not let them out. My cousins (that's what they were considered) couldn't stay here, the reason unknown, so they tried leaving by force. They weren't seen for 3 months just to be found burning in the cities heart. They were seen right before disintegrating completely. I hate lycans more than werewolves, they took away something from me. Most people tell me I have no right to be mad because I didn't even know these people since this happened before I was born but I still consider them family and there is no forgiving someone once they take family away.

I feel a hand on my shoulder, "Al's let him go, he can't breathe"

I turn to look at Cole and notice that he's trying to claw my hand away from his throat while his face is purple. I let go of him and stalk away to the protected outside area of my school. Humans, vampires, and werewolves attend this school. Humans, somehow, are still unaware of us supernatural. Most of the staff are either vampires of lycans, the school has an outside area for vampires that has UV resistant glass so that they don't shine, same thing with the parking lot.

I start practicing the breathing methods that my grandpa taught me. I'm not one to have bloodlust, I can stay without eating for at least a month and I get more hungry than thirsty, but the second I get really mad my thirst shoots through the roof.

I open my eyes to find Sammy's face all worried in front of me.

"Thirsty?" she asks while reaching inside her bag

"Yes, but I haven't drunk blood in a while and we are in school, I'm no masochist, do you have some food to help it calm down" she smiles at me and hooks her arm around mine and we turn around to head to her locker

The rest of the day goes uneventful aside from the sudden urges from time to time to drink blood. Thank the lord the werewolves got the message this morning and left me alone the rest of the day. After lunch, I felt way better with some food in my system, doesn't mean I didn't felt like stabbing people from time to time but then again that is me every day.

The final bell rings and I rush out of the classroom to go meet with Sammy at our lockers. As I approach my locker, someone opens the door and I get a whiff of something outside. I can't describe what it smelled like. It smells really good, like mouthwatering good but it doesn't have a specific scent. I can faintly hear Sammy calling me from behind as I follow the scent outside not exactly knowing what I'm doing. The second I exit the school I frantically look around to see where that delicious scent came from.

All of a sudden my eyes land on chocolate-brown eyes, and they look oddly familiar. I don't know how long we stay staring at each other. The only thing that brings me back from my daze is an arm wrapped around my arm, I don't even take notice of who it is before they are pulled off me.

I stay in place not knowing what is happening until I hear chants for people to fight and turn around. At my feet, I see two guys fighting

"Hey! Stop fighting" I grab the guy on top and push him off of the other one

"Don't touch me" it was more a growl than a command

"What the fuck is your problem? do you want to get expelled?" I grab their shoulder and turn them around.

Brown eyes. _The_ brown eyes. this time I make sure to not focus only on the eyes, I take in all of his features. Sharp jawline, barely noticeable dimples that I'm sure make his smile look amazing, high cheekbones, and a very dark-almost black-brown hair. As I put all of that together I recognize the face. The infamous Jackson Hunter. He is the son of the lord and a....

"Lycan" I hiss at him

"Vampire" he looks at me with an intrigued face

Before he can say anything else I stop inside the school to go look for Sammy, I know she couldn't have gone outside since it was sunny.

I feel someone grab my wrist and push me against the lockers

"Where do you think you're going" he's very close to my face, too close

"Far away from you" I catch him off-guard and push him off me before running full speed to the vampire parking lot and towards Sammy's car.

I swiftly open the door and get in.

"Alexandra what happened? What took you so long?"

"Drive" is all I say, I notice Jackson exiting the school and coming towards the car.

"Samantha, drive" I try to sound as serious as possible to tell her that I'm not playing around

"Not until you tell me what's wrong"

I huff and fast but gently switch our seats. She's too startled to even answer me as we speed off the parking lot and into the highway. I'm going well over 50 mph over the limit but I don't care, lycans are fast, the only reason I got away from Jackson was that he was startled, probably never been pushed off before.

"Alexandra!" I hear Sammy scream next to me

I look up and notice I almost crashed into the stairs leading up to my house.

"What the actual fu-"

"Sammy not right now, meet me at the shooting range in 10"

I grab my bag, get out of the car, and storm into my house

"Hey sunshine how was school" I hear my dad call from the music room

"I'm going to the shooting range with Sammy," I say in a monotone voice

I go to my room and change and drop off my bag, then I go up to the library to find my uncle Chad

"Hey buddy what's up" he says as he closes the book he was reading

"Hey, I need to blow off some steam could I borrow your rifle and gun?"

"Sure, just make sure to do it with a clear head, we don't want a repeat from the other day"

"Don't worry I'm going to a shooting range everything will be fine" I rush out of the library and down to the basement

I stuff everything into my bag and leave the house to go to the shooting range. I decide to run there and since I was distracted got there 5 minutes before the according time with Sammy, but I guess she knows me too well because as I'm about to step inside to wait for her she arrives without her car.

"By the look on your face before you smashed my car door I knew you needed way less than ten minutes. Now, shall we?" she opened the door for me and we step inside

The familiar odor of the store fills my nose and I start grinning moving towards the cubicles.


	3. ~2~

I stretch my hand out to Sammy, "Reload"

I have no idea how many magazines I've burned through, all I know is that imagining the paper target is Jackson isn't helping, not one bit, I want the real thing but then again I would get into some real trouble if I even tried.

I reach my hand out again but never got anything so I turn around to look at Sammy confused

"We ran out already Alex, you're really mad huh?"

I huff and start packing everything. I leave the cubicle area and head to the shop to restock on everything I used up before heading back to Sammy's car.

"Are you ready to talk?" she asks as we rev out of the lot

"Yeah. Did you see anything that happened before you went to your car or no?"

"Not really, I saw you walk past me and towards the exit of the school and when I noticed you looking for someone I just walked to my car to wait there, next thing I know you're in my car telling me to drive and Jackson Hunter coming towards us. So, what happened?"

"Honestly not even I know exactly what happened. I need sweets, let's go to the ice cream shop"

"Start talking and I'll drive" she probably thinks I don't want to tell her

"Fine. I was walking towards you when I smelt something delicious so I just follow the scent outside of the school. When I was outside I locked eyes with Jackson but I didn't know in that moment it was him."

"How do you not notice that you are staring at one of the hottest boys of the city?"

"Do you want me to continue or are you going to keep drooling over him?"

She cleared her throat, "Proceed"

"I kind of spaced out while looking at him. After that everything happened so fast, I think someone put their arm on my shoulder and then Jackson was at my side punching whoever it was. I pushed Jackson off the other person, I didn't even see who it was, and then once I noticed it was him I had been staring at I stormed inside the school to go to your car. Once I got inside the school he pinned me to the lockers and I-"

"You got pinned by _the_ Jackson Hunter?!?!" the car swerved

"Samantha! Relax and eyes on the road woman"

"Sorry" she mumbled and looked ahead, we were almost at the ice cream parlor

"Where was I? Right, he pinned me but I guess I caught him off guard by pushing him off me and ran full vamp speed towards your car trying to get away from him, then well you know the rest"

Due to how fast we were going we arrived pretty fast. Sammy just sits there processing everything, not that there's much to process anyway

"So why exactly did you run away from Jackson?"

Good question, "I have no idea, it was instinct"

"ok..." she trails off

"Sammy I don't even know what happened like something smelled really good and I just followed that but it led me to _him,_ " I don't want to even say his name I don't know why, "but that can't make sense because his kind smells like wet dog, to me at least. I have trained myself that werewolf scent smells bad just so I can keep away, but he didn't smell bad to me"

"Hmmm, let's go inside and eat something first"

I nod and leave her car. I spend a good hour eating ice cream while Sammy drink a blood bag since she can't eat human food. After that, we decide to head back to my house since it's barely 4:30.

"Mom! I'm back!"

I see my mom coming down the stairs in all her glory. I've seen pictures of my mom as a human, she was very pretty and it makes sense how she caught my dad's eye but now as a vampire, she's even more gorgeous.

"Hey, Mrs. Volturi, how's it been" Sammy has always been very casual around my mom

"Samantha, sweetheart, we've missed you around here" she embraces her in a hug

"Hey sweetie how was school" she gives me a peck on the cheek

"Very....Um...eventful" my mom raises her eyebrow as if allowing me to elaborate further

"Actually I think your family could help you figure this out don't you think," Sammy says grabbing my shoulder

"Yeah. Mom is everyone busy?"

"When it comes to you they aren't. Send a message to the chat and tell them to come to the library"

I nod my head and get my phone out before heading to the library.

When we go inside everyone is already there, I always forget they are faster than me.

"Is everything alright?" they all echo at the same time

"Creepy" I mutter, my mom chuckles next to me

"Ok so..." I tell them everything that happened and watch as they listen closely.

I notice how my Jade's eyes widen for a split second when I mention the scent leading me to Jackson, as well as how my dad, if it wasn't for my mom, almost sprint out of his chair when I mention that Jackson pinned me, should've left that part out. I tell them how confused I am about everything and how I just ran.

"So, does anyone know what happened cause I sure as hell don't"

"Language Ale," I hear my grandpa say

"Sorry"

"I think I may know what it is" my aunt Jade speaks up, I knew those wide eyes meant something

I move my hand as if to tell her to continue

"You're his erasthai"

"Huh? What's and erasthai?"

"Really? But isn't that just among lycans?" Chad asks

"No, it can be humans, werewolf, or even vampires"

"Helloooo, what's an erasthai?" I ask again

"How do you know that?" my grandpa asks

Ugh does no one in this house listen to me?

"Guys, Alex is asking what an erasthai is" this is why Ramona is my favorite aunt, she actually listens

"Oh, sorry sunshine. You know how werewolves have mates right?"

"Mhm?" please tell me it's not that

"Well an erasthai is something similar, but for lycans. Very few lycans have the opportunity to meet their erasthai, it can be whatever species. There are actually two steps to mating for lycans and erasthai. The lycan will first mark the soul of the erasthai, this doesn't do much to them but it does keep away other lycan, as I'm sure you know, werewolves are very possessive. The second step is the actual mating, but before that, they need to mark the erasthai. The reason for this is that the partner does not become a full lycan until they are marked and lycans can't mate with other species that are not lycans. Do you understand?"

I nod my head again not completely sure I got all that

"Ok, but I'm still confused as to what this has to do with me and why Jade said I'm Jackson's erasthai"

"Yeah, I'm confused too. I have known about the lycan species for a while but since I haven't personally talked with a mated one I don't know how the recognition works"

My aunt looks down at her hands and her eyes start watering

"I didn't tell you guys the complete story of how Gio died, at least not the why"

At this, everyone quiets down

"Ok, this is getting deep very personal, I feel like I'm intruding. I think I should just..." Sammy starts standing up from her seat

I reach my hand out and grab her wrist, "Aunt, can she stay for this. I want her to know so she understands my situation too"

"That's fine dear, not as if it was a secret or anything," she says as she fidgets with her fingers

"thank you" Sammy sits back down

"Ok so you guys know how Gio died," her voice is already getting stuck in her throat I don't think this is a good idea

"Yeah, I saw it happen and it's my main reason for hating werewolf kind"

My grandma grabs Jade's hand and takes a deep breath with her

"Do you remember how the werewolf looked dear?" what a weird question but as a matter of fact I don't

"Not really. I mean it happened right before my eyes but It was hundreds of years ago and I was still little"

"It wasn't a werewolf, it was a lycan"

Everyone's eyes widen. I thought it was a werewolf. I saw a werewolf. Did I?

I start trying to bring back memories, nothing too prominent. All I remember is a fury creature, long claws, pitch-black eyes, some type of necklace on the animal, but what stands out is that it's in two's not in all fours. It's a lycan

After a few seconds of silence, my aunt continued, "One day Gio and I went hunting near the border of the city. There were lots of lycans around since they like hunting for fun. Gio started acting weird all of a sudden and started running. I sniffed around to see if he found an animal or something but I couldn't smell anything so I just followed him. we came across a female lycan. She was beautiful, you wouldn't be able to keep your eyes off her. After a while of them staring at each other I grabbed Gio and dragged him away. The woman told us to stop and asked Gio if he knew what had just happened.

Of course, neither of use did so she asked if she could talk to Gio that it was important. Reluctantly I let him and came back home. Later that night he told me everything. Turns out he was the woman's erasthai, and she had asked him to be together even though she was meant to mate some other big shot. Gio told her he would think about it but he told me that he was going to say no. Then he explained to me what had happened that moment he suddenly ran off and it was just like what you told me happened to you. The woman and he had made an agreement to meet the week after that at the same spot. He went but when he came back he said someone else had come in her place since she wasn't feeling well, Gio still told the person that he declined the offer. The day after Gio got murdered by a lycan. My guess, someone sent by the woman since he declined her. My point being, I know you are this young man's erasthai because your uncle went through this"

By the end she is a sobbing mess to my grandma takes her away to relax

No one talks for what feels like hours but I just can't with this

"I won't accept him. I will not. This just gives me more reason to hate their kind. I know that all of you never exactly understood why I despise them so much but I really do hope this shows you why"

I'm not surprised that my dad is the first one to speak, "What do you want us to do sunshine?"

That's simple, "I want to leave this city. I want to leave and not see him again"

"We could do that, I know someone that could get me in contact with the lord. We could be out of here by next week" my grandpa says as he grabs his phone

"And I could arrange everything for the move" I hear my mom say as she gets up

"No," I say firmly making everyone stop, "I want to leave. Now"

Even I'm surprised at how demanding I sound

"Sweetie that's impossible. It will take me at least a day to get to the lord and then god knows how long for him to approve our permanent leave and-"

"Father, my daughter doesn't want to be near him so I will do whatever is necessary to make sure we leave by tomorrow morning" a voice boom through the library as my dad slams the door

I knew he would be the one to take my side and help me out. I look over at Sammy and she looks deep in thought. I look around and only see my grandpa by the computer emailing someone. I'm glad my family didn't even think twice about leaving everything for me, but then again moving is something normal for vampires

"Can we talk in your room Al's?" I notice how Sammy won't look me in the eyes

"Sure, let's go"

We walk to my room in our usual comfortable silence. Once we are inside I close my door and sit on my bed in front of my best friend

"I'm sorry" she blurts out

"For?" I'm confused

"For all those times I judged you for having something against werewolves. Also, I'm sorry because I never told you that behind your back I was friends with one. I honestly thought you had petty reasons for not liking them so I thought it wouldn't matter but now I know and you have every right to dislike them" she looks down and plays with the hem of her shirt

I knew about her being friends with Cole for a while, I'm not dumb, but I couldn't put it against her. My hate for his kind does not belong to Sammy and I have no right to ask that of her. If she wants to be friends with a werewolf she can.

I grab her into a tight hug, "Sammy you have nothing to apologize for. I've known about Cole for a while, you're not as smooth as you think you are. And about not knowing my reasons, that's all on me, you have been my best friend for years and I never told you, I should be the one saying sorry. I'm glad you understand now"

We stay hugging for a few more seconds before we pull apart

"So this might not be the best time for this but I thought it could do you some good, there's a party going on later tonight and well...."

"Sammy you know I don't do parties" I get off my bed to go get my computer

"I know but tonight might be your last night here and since my parents won't let me move yet we need to enjoy our possible last night together to the max. Also, you need to get your mind off of that piece of hunk" she raises winks at me, there's no hope with her. A hot guy is a hot guy

"Piece of hunk? Really?"

He is attractive, that much I can admit but I will never say that out loud

"Pretty please, for me? Our last night together in god knows how many years?" Damn her, she knows I'm weak to puppy eyes

She must have noticed my walls crumble because she squeals and immediately gets off my bed and runs towards my closet

"At what time is this party?" I ask while I play Roblox

"8 or 9" she screams from the closet. So damn loud, she knows we could whisper and still hear each other

I check the clock and it's only 6 and knowing Sammy she won't go to a party far away from my house or hers just in case she gets drunk

"If we have so much time why are you in my closet already?"

She peeks her head out and I can see the mischievous glint in her eyes as clear as day, "Because, tonight my dear friend, is that one in a full moon time, and getting _you_ ready is no easy task"

I grunt and lay down dreading what is about to come

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After 2 hours of Sammy getting me ready, we finally head downstairs to see everyone except my mom on either the phone or computer

"Hey baby, where are you guys going?"

"Sammy wanted me to go out since it might be our last night here"

I feel bad leaving all the work for my family to do, after all it is all for me

"But, I mean, if you want me to help you guys out I could always stay" I look at her with pleading eyes

She smirks, "We are fine, go and have fun"

"Damn it" I mutter

I notice my dad running his fingers through his hair in frustration

"Hey dad what's wrong?"

He walks closer to me and gives me a hug, "Nothing you have to worry about sunshine. We just have to go through a lot of different methods to be able to do this so it gets a little annoying especially since it's just repeating the same thing over and over"

He looks at me and gives me a smile, "But I would do anything for you so don't worry ok? We are getting out of here" he gives my hand a gentle squeeze and goes back to the phone

I look around the kitchen and sigh in relief. I love my family

"C'mon Al's we are already kind of late" Sammy pulls at my hand

I walk awkwardly in the tight jeans my friend made me wear.

The outfit consist of tight dark washed jeans and a red bralette like short tank top, she wanted me to wear heels but I convinced her to let me wear my usual white combat boots with a little heel. She wouldn't let me go if the sole of my shoe didn't have at least 3 inches of heel

We got in her car and drove to the party citing

I was right it was barely a 15-minute drive there

When we finally arrived it was almost 9 PM but the party was full swing already

We both got out of the car and I could feel Sammy's excitement for me being here, she was basically jumping in place. I've been to parties before but I always left 5 minutes in

"Are you ready?" she asks as she hooks her arm around mine

"Nope" I look down at her smiling since she is smaller than me, then again I'm pretty tall

"Perfect, let's go"

It looks like a cabin in the middle of the woods. The party looks like it's supposed to be outside but as soon as we enter the cabin you can see people partying inside as well, the music is so loud that you can even hear it in here.

Sammy drags me to the kitchen and gives me a cup before pushing me to the counter to get a drink

I'm not one to drink but once I notice that there's everything I need to make cherry vodka limeade I go straight for it

Sammy gets herself a simple beer, not that she's going to drink it anyway, and grabs onto my arm again to walk to the living room

Since we entered the cabin I felt a buzzing sensation in the air and ignored it but once we got into the living room it was like electricity in the air

Once I caught on to the very familiar and delicious smell I dropped my drink and ran towards the woods

_Damn it. Of course, he would be here. He might have left the place for years but he's still got a reputation with parties_

Jackson Hunter isn't exactly your typical rich, popular boy. Yes, he is both rich and popular but not by choice. Since his father is the lord of the city it would make sense for him to be rich and since he's rich he's popular, he's also very very good looking but whatever. He's not one for scandals or to be seen with girls all the time, and he's pretty kept to himself. The one thing that he does fit in for your usual popular jock is the partying, he never misses a party. He went abroad a few years back and it looks like he's back

I keep running not exactly knowing where I'm going but honestly not caring

All of a sudden I feel a grip on my waist and I'm against a tree

"Gotcha" he says in a taunting voice.

_Damn it_


	4. ~3~

_Damn it_

I'm going to be honest here, I don't like being controlled and this position is kind of bothering me right about now. Kind of

I don't waste time once I'm tired of being backed up against the tree so I turn us around and put my hand on his throat 

"Gotcha," I say mockingly 

He just smirks down at me and raises his hands as if in surrender

"Kinky" he says and I notice the slight British accent in his voice

I'm about to let go but I don't feel like giving him that satisfaction so I lean closer to his ear which is kind of hard considering he's obviously taller than me but it is in moments like this that I'm grateful for being tall and wearing 4 inched boots

"You have no idea" I whisper in his ear before slowly letting go and backing off to face him

When I notice his expression I can't help but laugh. The poor guy looks so shocked that I'm doubling down in laughter

After I wipe my tears from laughing so much I turn to look at him again, he's a blushing mess and is scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment 

_Cute. Wait. What the fuck. No_

"I bet you didn't think I would respond like that now did you" I cross my arms over my chest and smirk. I'm literally biting my tongue to not laugh

"Not at all, really caught me off guard," he says as he leans back on the tree

"That was the whole point dumbass" I roll my eyes and start walking back towards the cabin

"Wait" he gently grabs my wrist

I look down at his hand and buck up at him raising an eyebrow

He immediately lets go and rapidly mutters a sorry

"Don't worry about it. So, did you need something?" I ask sounding half bored

I need to get out of here because the second he touched my wrist I found myself not wanting him to let go and that's not good

"Um, yes. I wanted to introduce myself. My name's Jackson Hunter and as you very rudely stated I'm a lycan" he stretches out his hand

I hesitantly take his hand before saying, "Nice to meet you Jackie," yup I'm gonna call him that, "My name is Alexandra Volturi and as I'm sure you already know I'm a vampire"

"That isn't even my name"

"I know" I shrug 

I hold his hand for a little too long so I quickly let go

"Not to be rude or anything but if that was it I will be taking my leave" I need to get out of here, fast

"Actually..."

I turn around to face him again, I'm such a masochist 

"How do I ask this....do you know what's going on? Like, here?" he moves his hand between us 

I stay quiet for a second, "Yes? Kind of?" I really don't know how to answer him and something is telling me that if I want to leave I really shouldn't be even talking to him

"What exactly do you know?" He takes a step closer to me, the shy cute guy I saw a few moments back was completely gone

I unconsciously take a step back myself and put my hand in front of me

"Personal space please" he wasn't even that close but I could feel myself becoming dumber

He takes a step back and puts his hands in his pockets

"So?" 

I look back up at him. _Damn his eyes are pretty_

"Well all I actually know is that I may or may not be your erasthai or something like that, aside from that I know nothing" I try to say without sounding so bothered by it

He just nods and starts walking closer to me. Goddamn it

"And how do you feel about that?" nope, he isn't shy anymore

_Too close, Too close_

"Um....well..." why the hell is my brain not working

He smiles down at me as if he's proud and that's when I notice the slightly long canines and remember what he is. That is all I needed to be brought back to my senses

I straighten my back and close the remaining gap between us as I look him in the eye, he raises an eyebrow questioning me

"I don't like it one bit so I don't want it"

And with that, I'm running towards the cabin again. I'm well aware a lycan is faster than a vampire, and considering I'm also half-human that makes me even slower, so when I don't hear him following me I guess that means he let me go. For now

As I enter the cabin I push through sweaty bodies and head to the kitchen to get my drink again, after I finish making it I head to the living room to find Sammy

She's on the couch talking with someone, weird.

As I get closer I notice it's Cole the one Sammy is talking to. I decide to just sit across from them and take a sip from my drink. I notice how Cole has a black eye, it must have been a pretty hard hit if he hadn't healed yet unless it was from like 5 minutes ago. I turn my head as I feel a dip next to me on the sofa

"Al's where did you go?" Sammy grabs my hands and looks at me

"I sensed Hunter so I ran" I shrug my shoulders

"Makes sense" she lets go of my hands and I turn to look at Cole

"Hey Twi-" I give him a glare

"Right sorry, I was actually going to apologize about today, it was never my intention to offend you or anything Alexandra" it sounded genuine enough

"It's fine just don't do it again I hate it. Also, Just call me Alexa, Alexandra is just too bleh"

He grins at me and I return a smile. Ok, so he's not _that_ bad. Kinda childish

I feel sparks around me and I have come to learn that that means dear ol' Jackie is around

As if confirming, my thoughts he comes into the living room and sits down next to Cole

They do a bro hug thing, I don't know, guys. Sammy looks at me as if to ask me it's fine so I nod, at this, she looks at Jackson, smiles and relaxes.

"So what's up between you two?" Cole moves his drink between Jackson and me

"Nothing" 

"She's my erasthai" we both answer at the same time. How can he say that so nonchalantly

Cole's eyes widen, "The vampire that literally hates our existence is the erasthai to a lycan? Ironic"

"Don't sound so shocked" I roll my eyes

"Hates our existence?" Jackson looks at me confused

"Let me fill you in Jackie" he sends me a glare and I smile, "I, Alexandra Volturi, have a never-ending hatred for werewolves and their existence. And when I say werewolves that includes your kind too pretty boy"

"Is that so?" He raises his eyebrow 

"'Tis so" I turn around to talk to Sammy while I sip my drink

"So is that why your family is trying so hard to get permission to leave? So you can get away from me? I'm hurt, babe" 

I choke on my drink and turn to look at him, "What?"

"I am the Lord's son after all Alexandra, your family is really bothering him. Request for a permanent leave from left and right. I imagine this is all you?" he leans forward to put his elbows on his knees

"Why do you want to leave so desperately?" asks Cole as he takes a sip from his drink

"Yes, please do tell my dear erasthai" I could hear the cockiness in his voice 

_And he really dares asks me why_

"If it wasn't obvious enough, because I am this 𝘥𝘰𝘨'𝘴 erasthai" I roll my eyes

"And what's so wrong with that, Alex" Sammy could at least dissimulate her drool

"Enough blabbering, how about this. Let's place a bet, but both of you can only know about it after you agree" I know Cole needs cash but damn my life could be on the line for all I know

"I'm in if you are sweetheart" I want to punch that pretty face of his so bad and damn his accent

I look at him challengingly, he should know better than that by now

"Deal, now please tell me what this bet is supposed to be" I look at Cole daring him to make me do something I'll immensely regret 

"Chill Alexa, it's a quite simple bet. You guys are gonna have to date for 6 months, if you decide to accept my friend here as your erasthai then that is that but if you don't Jackson will let you and your family out of the city. What do you think?" He looks between me and Jackson

"Ugh, do I really have to _date_ date this dog?" I point towards His Royal Cockiness

"Yes Alexandra you have to _date_ date me. It's either, you do the bet and we see how that goes or my father and I just don't let you and your family out. This city is big enough for you to move to another side of it if you want to move to bad"

_The point is to get as far away from him as possible, being in the same city won't do anything_

I rewind on what he just said and immediately start getting angry. It was the same with my cousins, who do they think they are?

"You are all the same aren't you? Just because you rule where I live you think you can rule my life" I'm getting very angry. I know this because my eyes are stinging, meaning I want to cry of frustration, and I suddenly feel like all I can hear is every single human heartbeat in a 10-mile radius 

I think the three of them notice because I can clearly see the fear in Cole's eyes, he probably recognizes my look from this morning, Jackson's face goes from cocky to worry, and Sammy just ran off, most likely went to the car to get an animal blood bag. Good choice because normal food can't calm this right now

I feel a warm cup in my hand and without even thinking I start drinking it. I haven't felt this in a while. Since I have part of human taste buds it tastes kind of salty but I don't care because that's all that will keep me from killing someone right now. Once I down the whole cup of red liquid I look back at Cole and Jackson

"Are you oka-" I cut Jackson off

"Fine, I'll do it, but don't get on my nerves because no matter how strong you are I _will_ break at least one bone in your body" even I surprised myself at how threatening I sounded

"That's fine by me" he puts out his hand for me to shake

I grab it and say, "kinky"

He pulls me closer, "You have no idea"

I lean in even closer and as our lips almost touch, "I think I do" 

_2-0_

Then I just let go and go back to talking with Sammy. I'm not going to lie, my heart did skip a little when I felt my lips barely brush his, but again, nothing he has to know

"So do you guys want to play something?" Sammy asks, I know where she is taking this and I don't like it

"Truth or Dare?" suggests Cole, of course he's in on it

"Sure why not, please make it interesting" responds Jackson

"Al's you in?"

I know this is trouble but when have I kept away from it

"Who do you take me for?"

"Ok, so I'll start. Alexandra," ladies and gentlemen there it is, "truth or dare"

"When do I ever pick truth?" I saw as if it was super obvious

"Ok" she starts tapping her chin as if thinking, I'm not that dumb, it's clear what she wants

"I dare you to kiss Cole" what?

"What?" Cole and Jackson voice my thoughts, I was getting mentally prepared to kiss Jackson, but why Cole

"You heard me. Now will you chicken out or will you do it?" slowly I put the pieces together

Cole has a black eye that hasn't healed yet, for that he had to have gotten a pretty hard hit. In school I pulled Jackson off of someone, I know werewolves are very possessive of their mates so I can't imagine how a lycan would be. If the one that put their arm on my shoulder this afternoon was Cole it would make sense why Jackson would have hit him and why Cole still has the black eye and if I'm correct Sammy is doing this to get a reaction from Jackson. Does Sammy really want her friend to die? If a simple arm on my shoulder got him beating I don't want to know what a kiss will do.

"Sammy.." I say warningly

"What?" she asks innocently, "It can be just a peck"

I sigh and look at Jackson. Why am I looking at him? We haven't even started dating yet, not that I'm aware of

"I'll do it"

Cole looks at me wide-eyed but before he can do anything I just lean forwards to give him a peck. It wasn't even a peck because I barely grabbed Cole and I was suddenly over someone's shoulder as they walk through the crowd of people, all of them staring at us.

"Hey! What the actual fuck Hunter!" I try moving my legs but he grips them higher

"Stop moving Alexandra" he abruptly puts me in what I assume is his car 

He slides into the driver's seat and turns the ignition off before driving off like the maniac that he is, but I'm used to people driving crazy so that's nothing new not like I can die that easily

"Jackie stop the car"

Silence

"Jackson!"

The car suddenly stops and I jerk forward since I never put the seat belt on

"Hey! Be careful!" I turn around to look at him but he's already looking at me

I can't read his expression, he looks both mad and vulnerable at the same time

He starts leaning in and before I can stop him or even me our lips meet. My brain stops working as we kiss, one part is telling me to stop him and storm out of the car but another part doesn't want to stop. So far, the second side is winning because I find myself crossing the car center console to sit on his lap

Stop yourself right now

_But I like it_

Stop him!

_Don't_

I thread my fingers through his hair as he starts leaving kisses along my cheek and down to my collarbone. As he starts going back up my neck I feel him nibble and kiss here and there. At one point I feel his canines scrape my skin and I'm suddenly brought back to reality

"Stop!" I push him away as we both try to control our breathing

The second his breathing is back to normal I can sense the anger radiating off him again, and it isn't directed at me. He isn't looking at me in the eye

I reach my hand out and hold it against his cheek, "Hey, what's wrong?"

He pulls me into a hug and takes a deep breath. I would push him off but something is telling me I either let him hug me or he goes back to the cabin and kills Cole, even though I was the one that grabbed him to kiss him, so I let him hug me and we just sit there until he finally calms down

I slowly brush my hand through his hair, "You better now?"

He nods and lets me go, I take this as my chance to get off him and back on the passenger seat 

He doesn't let go of my hand even though I try to take it back 

"Stop moving your hand and tell me where I should drop you off" 

Usually, if someone talked to me like that they would have something else coming for them but I feel like right now is not the time to provoke him so I just tell him my address and we drive off. The whole car ride was quiet but I couldn't stop thinking about the kiss. Why am I so stupid? Why did my brain decide to shut off when I needed it the most? Why did I even kiss him back? Why am I slowly not hating him? I get that maybe he didn't do anything wrong, but his statement back at the party shows they are all the same. I'm letting my guard down around him and that's not good. It terrifies me. I won't let him play with me, I have to be with him for 6 months but that doesn't mean I'll let him do whatever. I'm better than that. As I said, no one controls me and I don't belong to anyone either.

"We're here" It barely comes out as a whisper but I still hear him

"Thanks, be careful on your way back" I try to get my hand out of his grip but he just tightens his grip

"Can I ask you something?" He looks so.....sad

"Sure"

He turns around to look at me and my breath hitches at how he looks, "Why do you hate me so much?"


	5. ~4~

"Why do you hate me so much?"

At this point, I really don't know what to think of this boy. I've seen him act shy, cocky, vulnerable, confident, and I've personally known him for a day. I have no answer for him, I don't know him well enough to tell him the general answer to his question

When I don't answer he releases my hand but still looks at me expecting an answer. I fiddle with my hands in my lap

"I don't exactly hate _you,_ I hate your kind" that's as much as I can tell him for now

"But why? This is not some type of bullshit book where vampires are against werewolves or something. I'm asking why do _you_ hate me, even if it's my kind you take that anger out on everyone that fits into your description to hate, and that includes me doesn't it?"

He's got a point. Since I was a kid I've hated all werewolves and lycans, but I don't really have an excuse for it. I can have a grudge against the people who directly hurt me and my family, that doesn't mean the whole world is involved. Since I never took the chance to even talk to anyone about this I just thought that my hate was justified. I'm really starting to doubt myself

"Why? Has my family or I done anything to you? Because if so just tell me and I will leave you alone, even if it literally kills me to be away from you because I don't want to cause you pain, I'll do it, just say it"

"No, they haven't and neither have you" I'm about to leave it at that but I remember something

"But back at the party, you proved to me that you are all the same" at this point I'm just finding excuses. I've just lived this way for so long I don't want to admit I was wrong, petty I know

"Does this have to do with the bet? About me saying you can't leave?"

"Yes" ugh my eyes are starting to sting, I can't cry right now goddamn it

I finally feel his gaze leave my face, "I'm sorry"

We stay in a comfortable silence

"I'll call my dad and tell him to grant your family the leave if that's what you really want, I won't make you do anything you don't want to, I'm not like that. I may act like it around other people because of reputation but I want you to know me for me"

How is it possible that in a matter of minutes a stupid little lycan has made me question my whole life?

"No, I don't want that" the words leave my mouth before I even register what I just said

"I said I'd do the bet and I'm doing it. I promise to give you a fair chance but so do you. I'm not comfortable enough around you to tell you my reasons as to my grudge but I hope you can understand that" it's my turn to look at him

God he's good looking. Wait, no, I don't want to become Sammy

He turns to look at me and gives me a lazy smile

"Yeah I do, and I'm glad that you'll be doing this. I won't push you to anything" he's saying the truth and it's so obvious. I feel like I can read him like an open book sometimes

"Good. I do want to get one thing straight" 

"Sure, what's up?"

"I'm old fashioned, so I'm not your girlfriend, we are dating not a couple"

He doesn't look shocked at all

"That's fine by me, I can wait. As long as dating means you won't see anyone else I'm ok with it. I'll try my best to win you over"

Ok, it's getting kind of creepy how well he's acting. Like he's saying all the right things? I still have to tease him a little of course

"I don't belong to anyone darling" his eyes widen a little bit and the slightest bit of blush makes an appearance on his cheeks

"I didn't mean- I never meant for it-" he starts fumbling over his words

A chuckle escapes my mouth, he's cute

"I'm kidding, I know you didn't mean that. It's getting kind of late I should head inside"

This confuses him. Right, as far as he knows I'm a vampire and vampires don't sleep

"I'm half-human, half-vampire but from time to time I like to act human, meaning I try to sleep, keyword being try"

"Oh, so you're one of those rare half and half, when I thought you couldn't be more different"

What is that supposed to mean?

"But yes if it's like that you should head inside, I don't want your parents getting mad at me"

I send him a smile and exit the car and start walking towards my door when I hear the windows roll down

"Alexandra, wait" 

I turn around 

"Hmm?"

"I didn't get your number, if we are dating now I need to be able to contact you somehow"

"Right, give me your phone" I walk the few steps back towards his car and grab his phone

"There, text me later so I can save your number"

"Will do. Also, is it ok if I pick you up for school tomorrow?"

Is it? I mean, I told him I would give him a fair chance

"Sure, why not"

A smile appears on his face, I was right about his dimples, they make his smile look childish and adorable, "Great, I'll see you tomorrow then. Sleep well"

"Bye" I step back and wave him goodbye as he leaves my driveway

I walk up to my door and open it to see the lights of the kitchen still on and my dad on the counter on his computer

_Shit, I forgot my whole family was hell-bent on getting us out of here for me_

"Hey, sunshine who was that?" my dad closes his computer and turns to look at me

"Oh....ha ha....about that" he raises his eyebrow questioningly 

"ThatwasJacksondrivingmebackfromtheparty" (That was Jackson driving me back from the party) I say quickly trying to avoid eye contact

both of my dad's eyebrows shoot up to his hairline

"Not that it's exactly my problem, but may I know why?" He's not judging me or mad, he's just curious

"Well, something happened at the party" why am I evading it so much, it's not that big a deal

"And?"

"Ok, so Sammy's friend, Cole, offered to do a bet to solve the little dilemma between me and Jackson but we couldn't know what the bet was until after we accepted. Me being me I said yes. Jackson and I have to date for 6 months, starting today. If I accept to be his erasthai well we just stay here and yeah. If after 6 months I still don't want to be with him he will let us out of the city. I don't know if you knew but he's the son of the Lord and they weren't letting us out on purpose"

I could see my dad trying to understand everything

"Ok?..."

I just stand there before I decide to go around and get a glass of water

"So you and this Jackson kid are dating now?"

I shrug and try to act nonchalant, "Pretty much"

"I mean if you're sure about this I say go for it. I'm not exactly too happy about it but you're old enough to make these types of decision"

I go around the counter and give him a hug, "Thank you dad, YA lyublyu vas" (I love you)

My dad and I have this thing where we tell each other I love you in different languages

"YA tozhe tebya lyublyu solnyshko" (I love you too sunshine)

I start walking towards the stairs, "You need to practice your Russian dad, it's rusty"

A giggle escapes me when I hear his deep laughter downstairs. I head to my room and faceplate on my very comfy bed

"So, how was the party" I fall off my bed when I hear someone next to me

"God! Mom, you scared the bejesus out of me!" Besides from me, my mom is the youngest vampire in the family but she is already very skilled at concealing her presence

She starts laughing, "I'm sorry honey, I didn't mean to"

I get back on my bed and sit in front of my mom, "It was ok I guess"

"So you tell your dad everything about this guy and not your dear mother?" 

She's clearly joking but I still feel a little embarrassed

"Ha, um, well I didn't tell dad _everything_ that happened, for Jackson's sake"

This made her lean in closer as if she was hearing some juicy gossip, she's such a teenager sometimes

I started talking in a very hushed voice that only my mom could hear, "When we got to the party everything was fine but I sensed him so I ran out"

"Sensed him? How does that work"

I like talking to my mom because she listens to me and gives me advice as a friend, not a parent

"Well, so far I know that I definitely smell him because to me he has a very unique scent but since there was so much going on I didn't smell him right away, but when I got closer I felt some type of buzzing in the air, I don't know how to explain it. At first, I thought it was just the music because it was very loud but later I confirmed it and it's because he was around"

She thinks about it and nods, "Makes sense. Right so, you ran out..."

"Yeah, but he's a lycan so caught up fast" I roll my eyes

"He didn't touch you right?" now the mother side is coming out

"Not necessarily, he _gently_ pushed me against a tree but not even 5 seconds after I turned us around and had him against the tree" I grin at my mom proudly as if I'd done something very important

She chuckles, "Of course you did, just like your mom, we don't like to get controlled"

"Nope" I pop out the p

I tell her everything that happened in between until we get to the part where we kissed

"And well he just kissed me"

"And you pushed him away," she says matter of factly but when I don't answer her eyebrows shoot up

"I didn't, I don't know what took over me but I didn't"

She looked super shocked, not because I kissed someone, that was nothing new, but because he was a lycan and I didn't push him away

"When I finally came back to my senses I did push him away though. After that, he just brought me back home and yeah" I don't feel like telling her about our conversation in the car yet I think she catches onto that because she doesn't question me further

"So now you guys are dating. If I'm being honest I didn't expect that but I'm glad for you honey, I want to meet him"

I shake my head and I bet it looks like it's going to snap off because my mom starts dying of laughter

"Everything comes at its own time. You have six months don't you?" she sends me a wink and walks out my door closing it

_Huh?_

Whatever I don't feel like sleeping tonight so I'm going to keep watching HxH

Next thing I know my phone is ringing indicating it's probably 6 AM already. Last night I cried a total of 6 times while watching my anime. To say I'm a very emotional person when it comes to fiction would be an understatement

"Do you want breakfast today sunshine?" I can hear my dad from downstairs asking

"No thank you dad, I'm fine today"

He is the only person in this house that understands that we are vampires and don't need to scream to talk to each other

I hear my phone ping so I go over and grab

**_Unknown: Hey I forgot to text you last night, it's Jackson_ **

**_Me: Oh right. Hi :)_ **

**_Jackie: Just wanted to let you know that I'll be there in like 15 minutes, is that fine?_ **

**_Me: Yes more than enough._ **

**_Jackie: Ok I'll see you then. Have you had breakfast though?_ **

I find myself smiling at the simple question on my phone

**_Me: I don't need to eat so no. Have you?_ **

**_Jackie: Right, and no I didn't have time but it's fine I'm used to it_ **

He should eat, unlike me and my family his body is still human

I take a quick shower and put on jeans with my usual black tank top and a purple hoodie, literally the only things I like to wear and I'm not using my sweats just because they are dirty

I shove my homework inside my bag and head downstairs

"Hey dad, could you whip up something very fast?" I notice everyone downstairs

"Morning" I smile and give them all a hug

"Yeah sure sunshine, got hungry?" right, this is not for me

"Oh, yeah no, this isn't for me"

I could see all the woman smirking and the men giving me a questioning look, I just ignore it

I grab my phone to text Sammy that she doesn't have to pick me up today, I forgot to tell her last night. I instantly put my phone in my back pocket because I know she is going to bombard me with questions

After like 5 minutes MY dad puts a plastic container in front of me, "Here you go, I hope he likes it"

"I- How-" I can feel myself blushing but just brush off his comment 

"Bye everyone" I wave at them as I exit my house, he wasn't here yet but while I heard a car coming this direction so I started walking down my driveway

As a car comes into view I open my mouth in awe

He gets out of his car and walks towards me

He's wearing a pair of black jeans and a simple navy blue shirt, he looks good

"Morning" he flashes me a smile with dimples and I melt 

"Hey. I got this for you" I give him the plastic container

He raises his eyebrow in confusion

"You said you didn't eat anything so I asked my dad to make you something" I look anywhere but him. For some reason, I feel shy, what the hell is wrong with me

"Well thank you for being so considerate. I noticed you like my car?"

I look past him to make sure I saw the correct car. I've wanted that car for so long but since I almost never drive I told my parents to not get me something that was just going to collect dust

"I love it! It's a 1969 Boss 429 Mustang," I walk towards the car, "I've wanted one but I don't drive a lot so I just appreciate it from afar"

I turn around to look at his shocked expression, "What?" did I say something

"Nothing, I just never met a girl that knew what type of car it was"

"Well I live with three men that don't waste money on anything that isn't cars so I know my way around them"

"Nice" he starts walking towards his side of the car when he suddenly stops and looks at me

"Do you want to drive?" He puts out the car keys towards me

My face immediately lights up as I grab the keys and get in the car. The leather is black with red streaks, the steering wheel is fully red as well as the gearshift, it's truly beautiful

I hear someone clear their throat next to me, I forgot I wasn't alone

"Sorry" I mutter under my breath and turn the ignition 

He chuckles, "It's fine, but unless we leave now we'll be late"

"Do you forget that I'm part vampire? Cause if you think I'm going to the speed limit you have something else coming for you buddy" I rev the engine and start backing out

"Then we are fine," I notice him open the container and start eating

I'm not in a rush or anything but listening to the sweet noise of the engine while I go 80 MPH just makes me feel some type of way

"Your dad made this" I turn to look at him briefly and nod

"Is he a cook or something? Because I've never tasted eggs that taste quite this good"

I smile, "No he isn't but when my mom was human he learned how to cook for her and developed a passion for it. My mom can't really eat food anymore so he cooks for me"

We are almost at the school when I hear him talk again, "I've never really heard the story fo your family"

I'm shocked at first but then remember that he only got back yesterday and he hasn't lived here for a while

"Well, to cut it short, do you know Twilight?"

He shudders and nods. I'll ask him later why he shuddered

"Well pretty much that, but without the Jacob" I make a gagging noise

I realize what I just did and turn to look at him to apologize but he sends me a smile as if telling me it's fine

I turn back around and head to the vampire parking lot when I remember I'm with Jackson and don't have to worry about shinning so I do a U-turn and head to the normal one

"Don't you need to park in that building so humans don't see you?" I don't blame him, barely anyone knows the difference between normal vampires and me, considering there's only a handful of my kind around

"No, I shine under the sun but it looks like a normal body shine so I don't have to worry"

"Oh ok, good to know" huh?

I park the car and get out. I go to the other side of the car and hand him the keys 

We both lean against the car as we still have time before the bells rings

"Did you enjoy that?"

_Duh_

"Very much so, the last time I drove one of these was like 20 years ago"

He looks at me questioningly, "How old are you?"

I playfully slap his arm, "Were you not taught to never ask a ladies age?"

He starts apologizing and telling me I don't have to tell him, he's shy again, cute.

"Don't worry about it I was joking, I'm 1,800 years old, you?"

I turn to look at him and I swear his eyebrows shot all the way u to his hairline

"You're older than me, like way older. I'm only 800 years old"

"Wow, so you're into older woman" I joke

"Looks like it" I roll my eyes and start walking towards the school as I hear the bell ring 

I head for my locker to put my stuff away when I feel someone jump on my back and wrap their arms and legs around me

I'm startled at first, only one person does that and she's halfway across the globe. Wait, what day is it today?

"Dari?!?!" I let her go and turn around 

Red glowing eyes greet me with a smile. 

"Did you miss me _mamá?"_


	6. ~5~

"Dari?!?!" I let her go and turn around

Red glowing eyes greet me with a smile

"Did you miss me _mamá?"_

"How...when...huh?" I stammer because of the actual shock I'm in right now

Standing in front of me is the petite figure of my life long best friend Dariana. She's a little bit older than me. She has long brown hair that reaches her hips, a thick body with curves in all the right places, sunkissed skin that compliments her red eyes. She's wearing light-washed jeans, a red bandana pushing her hair back, a black crop top with the words _Nope_ written in yellow and orange in the front, and white Vans wrapping up the whole outfit. The total opposite of my style, but then again she has the confidence to rock it. She's also Latina so don't you dare even try to offend her style, not like there's anything bad to say about it

All I do is give her a big hug almost suffocating her

"I'll take that as a yes" she taps my shoulder, she does that to inform me to let her go. Sometimes I don't control my strength

I let go and mumble sorry

"How are you, no, _why_ are you back already? Don't take that the wrong way, I love that you're here, why wouldn't I, I mean you make fun of me for falling off your skateboard all the time but that doesn't mean I hate you, then again you are leaving me all the time to travel the world but I'm just sad because I can't go with you" I'm rambling, I do this a lot around my closest friends

I hear and see my friend laughing in front of me, she still isn't used to my rambles I guess 

I'm about to continue my ramble when I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn to look at Jackson

"You should let the girl talk, love" why does he have to have an accent? Ugh

I hear Dariana stop laughing and gasp

Jackson puts his arm on my shoulders, "Aren't you going to introduce us, Alexandra?"

I wanna snap his arm in two for touching me. _Breathe in._ I said I would give him a chance. _Breathe out_

"Right, Dari this is Jackson. Jackie this is my best friend Dariana" I just had to throw in there the nickname. He puts his arm around me, I tease him, that's how it works

Dariana just gapes at him then me as if she can't believe it

The bell rings and I notice no one is around us

"Shit, I'm late for class on my first day. I'll see you at lunch love" Jackson gets his arm off and gives me a kiss on the cheek

I'm just startled by his show of "affection" that I forget I'm late to class as well

"What the hell happened while I left!!!" Dariana grabs my hand and starts dragging me to my class, she must've talked with Sammy before coming

"I....I....huh? You didn't answer me first, why are you here, didn't you say you weren't coming back for another 5 years?" we are in front of my class now. Maybe she didn't talk to Sammy and just checked my schedule to have hers like mine

"We'll talk later, I think we're late enough" Dari knows I don't like messing up my record, not that much at least

When we enter the class everyone stops to stare at us

"Ms. Volturi, Ms. Vallera, 15 minutes late to my class?" Mrs. White was standing in front of the board teaching God knows what

"Actually", of course Dariana will talk back to her, "10 minutes because the other five were optional Erika"

"Mrs. White for you Dariana, now hurry up and take your seat, you too Alexandra"

I bow down my head and scurry to my seat, to my right is Sammy looking confused at Dariana as she makes a human move seats so she can sit to my left

Sammy looks at me as if I know why she's back so I just shrug.

Dariana and Sammy met each other last time Dari came here, that was like 4 years ago. They also became friends so we were like a small group. Dariana likes to travel around the world a lot. She has visited every single corner of the world but by the time she's done she re-starts because there's already something new. Every 8-10 years she comes back to the city to pay me and my family a visit. After she became a vampire my family took her in, but since she never adapted to their style of hunting she never really considered herself family so she's just a very close friend

The rest of the class was pretty boring, at least for me. When you live for how long I've lived and have gone to high school and college as many times as me, it becomes boring, but it beats staying at home all the time. Sometimes it's weird considering my parents or aunts decide to go to school with me because I have to treat them as teens

"Ale time for lunch" I hear someone call as the shame my shoulder

_Already?_

"Sorry I spaced out" I grab my things and leave the room with my friends

Once we walk outside I feel sparks in the air. I turn my head to the side to find Jackson walking towards me

Dariana jabs my stomach with her elbow and sends me a confused smile. 

_Right, I haven't told her_

"Hey sweetheart"

_God_

"Hey Jackie, so I need to talk with my friend really fast could you get us a table? I'll be right there"

He glares at me but then nods, "Cole is waiting for me if you want to come along Samantha"

She looks up at him shrugs and follows him towards the cafeteria

I'm suddenly in the library sitting down in front of Dariana

"What-"

"Shush, since when are you and Jackson a thing? No, scratch that, since when do you hang out with a lycan?" she whispers alarmed

Funny story. Not

"Well, you see...."

I tell her everything that went down the day prior and see as her mouth gapes open the whole time

"Ok, gimme a sec. So you're dating him now because of a bet but ya'll have already kissed? And you actually liked it ?!?!"

I cover her mouth with my hand and put my index finger over my mouth to tell her to shush

I sigh, "I think I did but that's beside the point. I'm his erasthai and well like I'm supposed to be with him or some shit like that but it's literally getting harder and harder by the second to not like him. First of all, he says all the right things. Second, he is literally not like any other lycan I've met that's all arrogant and stuff just because they have power. And third, he's-"

"God-like hot? Hell yeah he is. Girl you scored here" she leans back in her seat and sends me a smirk

"I wasn't going to say that but whatever. I'm not saying I want to hold on to this hate or anything but I'm feeling it fade away too soon and too fast. I can actually kind of stand Cole now. Cole!!!" I raise my hands to add to it

She chuckles, "I mean, Ale, is it all that bad that he's changing that?"

She leans forward and grabs my hands as she looks me in the eye

"I'm happy for you. Jackson is a good person Ale. Yes he's a lycan and I know you don't trust them but give the guy a chance, he could be very good for you"

I furrow my brows confused, "How do you know he's a good person?" 

"Oh well like 2 years ago when I was in India I bumped into him and we caught up. Also, when your family found me you were still tiny and growing so you didn't go to high school yet, I did and I knew about him then. He's always been the same. With his looks and power, he could be the most popular guy in this school and get girls left and right, but he doesn't. He's actually very reserved. I don't know him well but he's not your usual popular jock. He does like to party so watch out"

I guess that makes sense but, "Why did you act like you didn't know him this morning?"

"Oh well I wanted you to tell me everything first"

I look at the clock and stand up, "C'mon we have 20 minutes of lunch left and I feel like eating today"

She grabs my hand and we walk towards the cafeteria, "Still trying the whole human thing?"

I move my other hand as to say meh, "I'm trying but I really don't care at this point"

We enter the lunchroom and I immediately feel Jackson's eyes on me. This erasthai bond thing is so weird

"Hey guys we're back. You must be Cole, I'm Dariana" she stretches out her hand towards him

He does a double-take on Dariana. She is a very beautiful girl after all

I turn to my left and notice a blonde trying to make a move on Jackson. Some weird feeling kicks in but it vanishes as soon as I notice how uncomfortable he looks. We lock eyes and I can see he's just begging me to save him

I ignore his call and sit next to him and start talking to Sammy

I feel Jackson's big hand on mine, "Well looks like my girlfriend is here, nice talking to you" he says hurriedly and turns his back on her

I take a sniff

_She's human_

She glares daggers at me, I just give her a look and move slightly forward as to challenge her, that's all it takes for her to leave stumbling over her own feet

I laugh lightly and take my hand away from Jackson's

"Hey, what's that for?" he gives me puppy eyes. He's such a child

I give him my hand back and notice as he smiles like a kid opening his presents on Christmas

Since I'm too lazy to get up to get food I just steal Cole's, he's too preoccupied with Dari anyway 

_Poor kid, she has a boyfriend. He'll find out eventually, also werewolf-vampire relationship doesn't really work_

I feel Jackson's hand tighten around mine. When I look at him he's staring at something. I follow his face to a human guy sitting at the back of the cafeteria. As soon as I look in his direction he lowers his head and if I'm correct I notice a faint blush on his cheeks, I turn back to Jackson's and try to get his attention

"Jealous much?" I ask jokingly

"Yes" 

I look at him wide-eyed, I wasn't expecting an answer, especially that

"Hey chill, I'm supposed to be dating you right now aren't I?" 

"Yeah, but it's not like you actually like me. You never know"

I scoff waiting for him to say he's joking. When doesn't take it back I stand up and storm out of the cafeteria

_Stupid mutt, as if I would do something like that. I may not exactly like him but what kind of person would I be if I cheated. Does he really think that low of me? I'm honestly kind of hurt by that_

"Alexandra!" I can hear him behind me but I ignore him

I keep walking towards my locker

"Alexan-" I turn around and face him

"Listen to me here _dog,_ I may not like you but I would never cheat. That's below me and that you really think I would do something like that is a big insult for me" I push my index finger on his chest until his back hits the lockers

"So don't you _ever_ even insinuate I will, would, or did cheat. Understood?"

I put my hand down and walk across the hallway to my locker again. I open it and take out gum, I need to chew something to not bite someone

"Look I'm sorry, I never meant it that way. But you have to understand that you not even liking me as a person really makes me doubt if you'll stay with me, which is the last thing I want to think about," he starts walking closer, "I don't know if I've made it clear enough but I want to be with you. I'm trying to be like you think I am and just claim you like an object because you're not one, but don't doubt for one second that every time I see a boy stare at what should be mine I feel like kissing you right then and there to show we are together, so don't tempt me, Alexandra" by now there's mere inches between us and I can feel sparks of electricity flying everywhere, I don't know how I feel about this all I know is that I want to close this tiny gap and like last night that terrifies me 

As I notice him lean in, the end of lunch bell rings. I clear my throat as student pile out of the cafeteria 

"We're not done here love" he winks and with that, he's gone

I'm not liking this effect he has on me, especially him, I can't think correctly around him

"Are you alright Alex?" 

I blink to clear my head and look at Cole

"Yeah, I'm fine. Where are the girls?" I look around for Sammy and Dariana

"I don't know after the bell rang they just ran off" He shrugs and starts walking with me

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice the guy from the cafeteria so I decide to go up to him

"Hey" I say as peppy as possible

I guess he's startled by my sudden appearance because all of his books almost fall. Almost. Thanks to my speed they didn't hit the ground so we didn't call attention

"Sorry, you scared me" he sounds kind of shy but at the same time not

"It's totally my fault, here you go" I hand him his books

"Thanks" he grabs his books and starts walking away

I catch up to him, "I wanted to introduce myself. I'm Alexandra Volturi"

"Hi. I'm Sebastian, I'm sorry for staring back there" he's being very curt but I can see he's not trying to be mean, he's just a man of few words

I shake my head, "It's fine. Did you need something? Maybe you wanted to ask me something?"

I was just following him and didn't even notice we were at my class 

"You have English 3 Honors too?" I ask. I've never seen him in this class

"No, I just needed to bring the teacher something" 

I open the door right as the bell is about to ring, "Well if you need anything just ask me ok? I don't bite" I laugh

He chuckles, "Will do"

I take my seat in the front and feel someone's heated gaze on me but decide to ignore it

Sebastian hands Mr. Lopez a piece of paper and walks towards the door

I wave and send him a friendly smile. He waves back

"Ok class I have just received a change from the English department. Instead of reading the book we were assigned when school started, we will be doing a collaboration with the drama club. We will be doing a Romeo & Juliet play"

I turn my head to look at Sammy and Dariana. We have read R&J for fun many, many times. We are suckers for romance. This would be an easy A for us

"Since I know most of you haven't touched your books since freshman year I will give you a week to read at least up to act 3. To make this easier and faster we will work in partners, and they won't only work for the class but for the play as well so get comfortable around them"

I have a very bad feeling about this. I've read enough Wattpad stories to know what is about to happen and I'm really dreading it

"Since my whole plan has changed we will pick partners now and begin today, I have extra copies in the backroom for those who don't have one with them today"

Ok, Mr. Lopez usually lets us pick our own partners, I'll just go with Sammy or Dariana.

"Ok so we will split in half, the right half will put their names in and the other will pick out"

And he had to change his system, of course

Both Sammy and Dariana come to my side and I notice Jackson on the other. Just to make sure I move to his side so that I won't be able to get him

"Ok is this it? No switching sides? Ok, write down your names here and put it in that bag" Mr. Lopez tells the other side of the class

When he moves I notice chocolate brown eyes staring at me, I look beside me to make sure I was just imagining things

_Nope, he moved_

That son of a-. This is fine, there's like 30 people in this class meaning it's a 1 out of 15. I'm fine 

"Now, everyone here grab a piece of paper. To make this fair you will grab it and you cannot see it. Grab it and give it to me, I'll write down the partners and tell you all at the end of class"

Nooooooo. Well there goes my plan of changing partners if I needed to

_God, what have I done to deserve this? Why are you so eager to torture me?_

When it's my turn to grab a piece of paper I try to take a look before giving it to Mr. Lopez but he snatches it from my hand before I have the chance

I lock eyes with Jackson and see him smirking. How can he go from a shy little boy to... _that_

Once Mr. Lopez writes down everyone's partners we all sit back down

"Now for the partners, Samantha and Carson, Macy and Miguel, Alicia and Rin, Ariana and Mikael,"

And like that, he went down the list

"Dariana and Karma," How do I just _know_ I'm next, "Alexandra and Jackson, and lastly Nene and Nico"

I can't really say I'm shocked, this is some Wattpad shit. 

_If you are reading into y thoughts right now tell the author to please not make me suffer_

Yep, I'm going crazy and it's all his fault

"Get with your partners and start reading," Mr. Lopez says before getting back to his computer

I decide to get this over with so I just stand up and try to walk up to Jackson. I'm stopped by this blondie with green tips, I think her name was Nene

"Hey Alexandra," she's being friendly, too friendly 

"Hi?"

"I noticed you weren't too happy with your partner if you want I could always convince Mr. Lopez to help us switch. Not everyone wants to be around the new kid, I understand that" she puts her hand on my shoulder in a friendly manner but there's more underneath that sweet, friendly smile

The feeling from lunch comes back. It's a sense of......possessivenes. Why?

_Oh._

I shake her hand off and put on my fakest smile

"Did I really give a bad reaction towards receiving Jackson as my partner?" 

She nods, "It's totally fine you know, we can talk to Mr. Lopez and switch" she starts walking towards the front of the class but I grab her wrist and turn her around

Trying to not sound hostile I say so only she can hear, "Why would I be mad to be partnered up with my boyfriend?"

I let her wrist go and walk towards Jackson, he's grinning like an idiot

"What?" why is he smiling? It's creeping me out

"So I'm your boyfriend now?" He raises an eyebrow and when I don't catch on, he smiles showing me his long canines

_Fuck lycan hearing_


	7. ~6~

"So?" He raises an eyebrow

I point a finger at him, "Look I just said that to save you from her. Unless you wanted a re-peat from lunch but for weeks" I crow my arms and look at him curiously

He shivers, "No, I'm fine"

I take a seat next to him, "That's what I thought. Why the shiver though?"

I start taking out my book and turn to look at him

"First, I don't like blondes. Second, girls usually can't take a hint when I tell them no, all they see is my looks. And third, well, I have you now so I really couldn't care less about them" he shrugs

I feel a blush tainting my cheeks, he chuckles. This little- he knows what he's doing

"I saw how happy you got when R&J was mentioned. You like it?"

"I do, pretty much anything that has to do with romance I love, especially since I was around when this play came out," I say matter of factly

I feel a few stares from the people around me.

_Probably shouldn't say things like that around humans_

"So you're into romance? Good to know. Now, I'm pretty sure you don't even need to read the book then?"

I shake my head while smiling feeling kind of proud of myself

"Good because I don't have a lot of patience and didn't want to wait for my partner to read it"

I send him a confused look. I swear, he didn't speak English for a second

"You see, I like romance too, Romeo & Juliet is one of the origin stories, of course I would know it by heart"

My face switches from confusion to shock

"I've never met a guy, aside from my dad, that likes romance"

"And I hadn't met a girl that knew about cars. There's a first for everything, love" he sends me a wink trying to flirt

I look at him blankly and shake my head, "Don't try too hard Jackie"

He laughs. He has a very nice laugh, it's kind of deep but not deep? It sounds light and-

Why the fuck am I thinking about his laugh? I'm becoming a creep, ew

"Are you alright Alexandra" I snap out of my daze and focus on Jackson again

"Huh?" I don't usually space out but when I do I forget everything around me

"I asked what do you want to do now since we don't need to read"

I start standing up from my seat, "We could go talk with-"

He grabs my wrist, "Sit"

I look at him challengingly, "I'm not the dog here so don't order me around" I take my hand away 

"I just want to spend time with you, that's all"

I look over at Sammy and Dari. I'm sure they've been listening to us this whole time.

 _Sit,_ they both mouth to me 

I roll my eyes and sit back down

"I have a question," Jackson changed his seat and is now sitting in front of me 

"Shoot" I lean back in my seat

"Are you ever going to stop calling me a dog? I mean, I prefer that over mutt but still"

I bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from laughing, "I got the nickname from Twilight, yes ironic, I'm aware, and I like it so I'm keeping it. To answer your question, no I'm not, you are somewhat a dog, am I wrong?"

"Technically you aren't I guess. Fine, I'll let you call me that-"

"I was going to do it anyway" 

"If you tell me you're free Friday afternoon" 

"Again, I was going to anyways but I think I am, why?" I lean forward

"You're very dense for someone that likes romance, I'm asking you out on a date"

I form an o shape with my mouth, "Yeah well now that I think about it I have something to do with-" someone covers my mouth and right before I can bite it off Sammy speaks

"She'll love too, just let her know time and place" she sends him a smile

I'm deciding whether to bite her hand or lick it. I go with the latter trying to be friendly

"Als what the hell" she yanks her hand away

I snicker, "Don't interrupt me or cover my mouth"

She rolls her eyes and goes back to Dariana

"You said you'd give me a fair chance" he grabs my hand

I look at our hands for a second, "Ugh, fine, time and where so I know what to wear" 

Not like I'm going to dress up anyway, I'm just asking to make sure sweats aren't _too_ informal 

"We'll leave from school and you can just dress casually"

"But, where are we going" why does he have to be so cryptic

"Don't worry about that, just trust me"

"I don't know if I can do that" I mutter under my breath 

"Oh c'mon it's just a date Alexandra" I hadn't noticed until now that I was playing with his hand

I pull my hand away, "I said yes, didn't I? I'm going so don't worry I kind of have no choice but to trust you"

"Good, now I'll be right back" He stands up and starts walking towards Mr. Lopez

I take my phone out and start scrolling through social media when I feel a presence in front of me 

"Well that was fa....who are you?" I lift my head to find a redhead in front of me

"Hi" he smirks at me

"Hello?" I try to ignore him and go back to my phone but he starts talking again

"My name's Karma. I noticed your little banter with the lord's kid, he giving you trouble?"

Ooooooh I see what this is

"No he isn't, thanks for worrying" I say nonchalantly. I don't want a fight going on and if Jackson hit Cole, his own friend, for putting his arm on my shoulder, I don't want to know what he will do to this kid. I mean he's not bad looking, don't get me wrong, he's got a bad-boy aura around him but he's not my type

Someone clears their throat, "Thanks for keeping her company, you can go now"

Jackson lifts Karma up from his seat and sets him down on the floor

"Hey man I was talking to her" I would really shut up if I was him

"Yeah, and that's over so go back to your partner" Jackson gives his back to Karma and intertwines his fingers on top of his seat 

"I know she's not you guys aren't actually together so stop acting like she's your"

I mentally face-palm, is he dumb or just stupid?

"Listen here buddy..." Jackson starts getting up from his seat

Ugh I hate drama

I grab his hand and pull him back down before shaking my head

"Not so tough around her?" Karma scoffs

Ok that's it he's getting annoying

"Look, Karma was it? He doesn't need to be a certain way around me. He also doesn't need to defend me because I can do that myself. Now, unless you don't want children in the future I recommend walking away" I glare at him

He chuckles, "Feisty, I like it. We'll talk later babe"

I roll my eyes and turn my gaze back to Jackson

I swear I see blue-ish veins under his eyes. The whites of his eyes are also becoming black

_Wait that means_

I stand up abruptly with Jackson's hand still in mine and drag us both out of the classroom

Once we are outside I let go of his hand and turn around to get a good look of him

The whites of his eyes are now fully black and the brown is darkening by the minute, he has blue veins popping up under his eyes, he's also the slightest bit taller and I can see the faint stubble on his chin 

I reach my hand out slowly up to his cheek. I start tracing the veins with my thumb as he leans into my hand and closes his eyes. This seems to relax him because when he opens them again they are back to black is back to white and the dark brown is back to its chocolaty brown color

"Better?" I ask as I drop my hand

He just nods and looks at the ground 

He's like a little boy sometimes, I swear 

"Sorry you had to see that" he half-says, half-whispers

I shake my head but remember he isn't looking at me, "There's nothing to be sorry about, what was that?"

He looks up at me and I get sucked in to the beautiful brown of his eyes. He looks almost scared

He doesn't answer me, is he actually scared?

"Are you scared somehow Jackie?" I try to lighten up the mood

He averts his gaze again. Ok, epic fail

"Jackson, c'mon, what's wrong" I try getting closer to him but he steps back

"Ok then, I'm going back inside ok?" I try to walk past him

I swear I see his hand twitch towards me

"Unless you want to say something?" I crouch down to meet his eyes

"Can we go somewhere?" He straightens up

"Um, I mean, we are still in school, once we are done sure"

"No, I mean right now if not I won't do it"

I hear the urgency in his tone so I purse my lips and nod

We start walking towards his car and I take out my phone to text Sammy and Dari

**_Me: Guys I'm going somewhere could you take my things to my house?_ **

**_Dariana: Where are you going? Are you with Jackson?_ **

**_Samantha: Is he ok? Why are you guys skipping? :3_ **

I roll my eyes and get in the passenger seat

"Do you want the girls to get your stuff and give it to Cole?"

He stops mid-nod, "What are they doing with your?"

"They'll drop it off at my house"

"If they could, can they take my things too? I'll just pick them up when I drop you off"

I shrug, "Sure"

I go back to my phone

**_Samantha: Helloooooo. Don't ignore me Alexandra_ **

**_Me: Sheesh Sammy I was just doing something. Idk what we are doing he said he wanted to go somewhere, sounded important enough_ **

**_Dariana: Sure mama I'll take your things, have fun_ **

**_Me: Oh! Could you please also take Jackson's things?_ **

**_Samantha: Yeah, yeah go and have fun ;)_ **

**_Me: We aren't doing anything_ **

**_Samantha: Uh-huh sure, keep telling yourself that boo_ **

**_Dariana: Samantha, shush. Alex, bye_ **

**_Me: Bye guys thank you_ **

"Done. Now, are we going to talk about what happened?" 

He stiffens a little, "Can we wait until we get there?"

"Where exactly is there?" I'm going to try to lighten up the mood again, I don't like this

"You'll see" 

"How do I know you aren't taking me somewhere to kidnap me? Look Jackie someone with your looks could use them for evil," I shrug and notice a tiny smile playing on his lips, "Just sayin'"

He breathes a chuckle, "You know I would never hurt you Alexandra" 

He looks more relaxed

I lightly shove his shoulder, "I got you to laugh didn't I?"

He looks at me for a brief second and smiles. The genuine type, the one where you can see his dimples

The tension that had me suffocated dissolved just like that and I relax against the seat of the car 

I see movement from the corner of my eye and notice Jackson subtly moving his hand towards mine

I stifle a scoff. I reach my hand out and grab his as I intertwine our fingers and put them in between us

His smile turns into a grin

"Gotta be bolder than that Jackie or I might just get bored with you" I joke

"I need to get you comfortable first, love. You'll experience everything at its own time" He turns to me and winks 

I roll my eyes and turn my head towards the window to hide the faint blush I feel creep up my cheeks

After a few minutes of driving, we pass a fence that says private property and turn into a dirt road. We don't go for too long before he stops the car and starts getting out, I follow suit and catch up to him

 _He looks troubled again_

I grab his hand and give it a reassuring squeeze

He leads me through the trees before we reach a lake

The view is amazing, a blue lake that looks bottomless and shines like it's filled with little diamonds under the sun. There are splotches of greens all around the lake and it makes it seem like something straight out of a painting

I didn't notice I was smiling until I closed my eyes to take in the silence and peace around us. I breathe in and out as I hear chirping birds, the rippling of the water, the air hitting the leaves

I feel a gentle tug on my hand and turn my head to look at Jackson

"Hmmm?" I hum in acknowledgment

He mumbles something, I only catch grey 

"Huh?" I let go of his hand to tie up my hair, the sun is at its peak so it's very hot 

"You have grey eyes, I thought they were blue"

I blink a few times, "Oh, yeah most people think that. I forget it myself sometimes since they only look truly grey under the sun"

I remember I still don't know why I'm here

I guess Jackson notices my realization because he sighs

"So you knew I was trying to hold my lycan back in school?" 

I sit down crossing my legs while I stare out at the lake before answering

"To be honest, I didn't exactly know you were trying not to turn, I just knew you weren't yourself and needed out. It happens to me sometimes," I shrug and he takes a seat next to me, "you saw it yesterday at the party. When I get riled up my vampire side comes out to play. I usually try to act as human as possible and considering I'm part it, I'm able to keep up the facade but when I get too angry that all goes down the drain. All I can hear is the heartbeat of every human around me, I can hear the blood flowing through their veins, I can see the vein in their neck just telling me to bite.

A few years back I lost control. I can't really remember those times so I don't remember why I did what I did. Hundreds of people, dead. I'm very grateful to my family for sticking with me though, we are part of those few that decide to not drink human blood and opt-out for animals instead so for them to stick by me even after I killed a bunch of people was everything, that's why my family is the one thing in my life I don't accept to lose," I shake my head and turn to him 

"My point is, I knew you needed to get out of there so I did just that" I send him a half-hearted smile

He nods and now it's his turn to look out to the rippling water 

"Thanks" he starts standing up and reaches out a hand for me. I take it and stand up, putting my hand in my back pockets

"For?"

"For telling me that, and for what you did. Someone would've probably died if you didn't drag me out the door"

I giggle. _Ew, what the fuck was that_

Another thing pops up in my head when I look back to our conversation at school 

"You said you wouldn't do something if it wasn't now, what was it?" 

He's not looking at me. He's debating what to do, it's getting easier to read him

"Were you scared?" 

_Huh?_

I turn my head, slightly confused

"When you saw me like..... _that"_

"Oh," I don't have to think twice about this, "no I wasn't"

He nods slowly

I start putting some pieces together. He looked scared back at the school, was he scared of how I would react? I mean, to an average person it might've been scary and they probably would've run off so I see why he would be worried. 

"Did you bring me here to show me how you look fully transformed?" I can't help but ask

He finally looks at me, "Do you want to see me like that? Think very hard about it" he's using the same tone he used last night, meaning this is not a light topic for him

"We are surrounded by trees, so I can't escape. Shouldn't it be now or never?" I joke, probably not the best time 

He exhales slowly, "Are you sure? Alexandra, you said you hated lycans. You've known me for 2 days. I know I'm going against what I've told you before but I'm sick and tired of regretting this choice, but at the same time, I think you should see sooner than later. It might not sound too serious but it's not something pretty, some people describe it as something out of a horror movie and I don't think I can handle you thinking of it like that but you need to know who you're getting involved with, even if it's a bet. So, are you sure"

I let all of that sink in 

Yes, I still haven't completely changed my mind about lycans but that doesn't mean I have to or can keep denying the bond that's obviously between us. It doesn't mean I'm quite ready to accept it yet but he is right, I should know about all of this. I've seen a lycan before, this was confirmed by my aunt, but I can't remember it so I can't assure him of how I will feel but I do want to see his true nature even if I'm just getting involved with him by a bet

He's most likely getting anxious by me taking so much time to think about it

"I'm sure" I let him know whole-heartedly 

"Please promise me you won't run away. If you don't feel comfortable with it just say it and I'll turn back"

I nod because even if I won't admit it to him I am kind of scared. Not of him or what he might do, but because I don't want anything to resurface in my mind and I don't want my voice to give me away 

He closes his eyes. At first, I don't see any difference but then I notice the subtle blue under his eyes, he's also slowly getting taller and I can see that his face is getting harrier. He then opens his eyes and it's like I'm staring into oblivion. They arent white with their usual chocolate brown in the middle, his eyes look pitch black with nothing else

I slowly lift my hand up to his cheek. He jumps slightly but then leans into my palm. I trace his every feature with my other hand

He stills looks like Jackson, that much is noticeable. His face just isn't as smooth and his eyes aren't brown, from afar the veins under his eyes could be seen as eye-bags, one of the only prominent things is his height. He grew a few inches, and even though he wasn't that much taller than me now I'm having a little trouble touching his face 

I let my hand fall limply at my side as I feel a sharp pain next to my ear as an image pops up in my head


	8. ~7~

One second I was looking at Jackson in his lycan form and now all I can see is black

Images start going through my head. I'm now looking at a shadow coming out of the forest behind a house, I turn my head to see my uncle Gio run towards the shadow to attack it. My uncle and the creature are fighting and my body won't move, I start screaming for my family to come down but when they get there everything is red and then there's smoke. I can't breathe. I'm crying, screaming, coughing. I turn around to see my aunt Jade being held back by my dad and my grandpa. I notice we are outside the house now. When I look towards the house that's burning I see the shadow again. I let go of whatever I was holding and run inside. The shadow is a lycan, a black-haired lycan with a purple pendant. I stare into it's black eyes before it bears its sharp teeth at me and runs off. I start following it but my foot hits something and it feels warm. I've forgotten by now that there's fire around me so when I look down to see something caught on fire I'm confused. I look closer and notice it is my uncle's head turning to ashes, but it's at the point of no putting back. I start screaming again and someone shakes me

I snap out of my nightmare and start gasping for air and pulling at my roots to make the pain stop

I feel strong arms wrap around me and I try to fight them off. I take a breath and smell Jackson so I relax against him still crying. I remember where we are and who it is I'm with but I still can't fend off the memory

I cling to Jackson not wanting to go back to my memory as I keep my eyes shut and sob as he rubs small circles on my back to calm me down. 

I lock away memories that I just can't bear with, one of those being my uncle's death. I can't remember the details of it, as in when, how, and where it happened. Most of the time I also lock away the feelings and emotions it brings on. For this specific one, I wanted to remember why I locked it off so I just left the feeling of fear and sadness, this was way better than the pain I felt before I tried to erase the memory. They are usually locked away for good but very specific things can bring them back

After a few minutes of crying, I open my eyes. My arms hurt of how strong of a grip I had on Jackson, but I felt that if I let go I would go back to the darks of my mind. 

I let go of Jackson and back away for a second to pick myself up. At one point I must have fallen because we were sitting on the grass

I look around me to make sure we are still at the lake before looking at Jackson again. His face is full of worry

I wipe my cheeks and take a deep breath and go back to give Jackson a hug again. His scent calms me down somehow

He rubs my back again, "I know you're most likely not, but, are you ok?"

I let him go and shake my head. I feel like if I start talking more tears will come out

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I shake my head again. I'm scared of wandering back into my memories

"Ok. How about we head back" He starts standing up before I grab his hand

Once more I shake my head. I don't want to go anywhere, I want to stay here looking out to the sky and trees a little longer

He smiles and sits down next me, pulling me up to his chest to put his arms around me 

I don't know how long we've been here but I don't care, I don't want to go back to the real world just

I must have fallen asleep because when I open my eyes I'm back in Jackson's car and he's driving

"You awake?" He turns his head to look at me before looking at the road again

"Yeah," I notice I have a blanket on me

"You've been sleeping for an hour now, we just left the lake"

I sit up normally now, "Thanks for carrying me to the car but you could've woke me up you know"

He smiles and shrugs, "You looked peaceful and I didn't want to interrupt your sleep"

I chuckle, "Such a gentleman"

I take the blanket off, "So where are we going?"

"Believe it or not we've been out for a while so it's already 5, I think I should take you home. I'm sure you didn't text your parent you were out and you have homework"

I slightly pout and cross my arms, "Buzzkill"

He rolls his eyes and turns the radio on

We spend the rest of the drive in a comfortable silence while I hum to whatever is on the radio

Turns out I text really slow and so do my friends because the ride back home took longer than I remembered. We arrive at my house around 6

We get there and I see Sammy's car parked in front of my house

_Of course she would stay and wait for me_

"Here we are, thank your dad for the breakfast, it was delicious" he smiles at me

"Will do. Also, thank you for today, I don't really feel like talking about what happened, I wasn't even going to bring it up, but you need an explanation and all I can say is that it wasn't your fault. Seeing you as a lycan wasn't scary or ugly for me, it was intriguing and its own way beautiful Jackson, I get why you might've been scared but you need to know that you can't scare me off that easily" 

Even though a lot has happened I still need to guard myself and I don't know about telling him what happened but I do know that showing me his lycan form was a big deal so I needed to clear that up

He starts laughing, it sounds as if he's relieved, "Alexandra you have no the hell you put me through. I didn't want to bring up the lake because of what happened to you and I respect that you don't want to talk about it but I really did think it was my fault and that you would bolt any second. Please, if it happens again, which I hope doesn't, tell me if it was or wasn't me. I can't go through that again"

I send him an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry but yes I promise I won't do that again. Thank you for being the buzzkill you are because I remembered I have some very important work to do. I'll see you tomorrow?"

He smiles, "Tomorrow, same time"

I nod and exit his car, I walk up to my door and open it before turning around to see him waiting for me to get inside

"Bye" I wave my hand knowing he can hear me

With his smile still prominent he drives off

I get inside and lock my door before going up to my room. I take my clothes off and step in the shower

I feel my muscles relax as the hot water hits my skin

I hear the bathroom door open and try my best to cover myself

"Sammy, little warning next time!" I drop my hands as Sammy laughs at me

"C'mon girl this isn't the first time I walk in on you showering or see you naked" 

I scoff, "I know, I'm used to it by now because you don't know how to knock but what if it was someone else?"

"Who in this house walks in without knocking? Name one person and I'll be more careful"

Everyone goes along to what I say so they all knock, "Fine, but still don't scare me like that"

I turn back and keep washing my hair

"So," From the corner of my eye I see Sammy sit on the toilet next to the shower, "what did you guys do?"

I wince, "I'd rather not get into it but to keep you from questioning anyone else, we went somewhere beautiful and then something happened"

I see her smirk and realize what I just said and how it sounds to her

"I didn't mean...."

"Uh-huh, sure you didn't Als" she winks at me

"Be useful and get me my towels" 

She chuckles and passes me the towels before going back into my room

I dry myself and my hair before going out to put my pajama shorts and a tank top, I leave my hair in a towel for a little longer before taking it off and brushing it

"So you're sleeping over?" I plop myself on my bed

"That, I am I couldn't wait until tomorrow to get all the juicy details," she wriggles her eyebrows

I make a gagging sound and sit up

"Now don't leave anything out, spill" 

"Samantha, nothing happened. After we left the classroom he dais he needed to show me something, that it was important so I went with him. He just showed me his lycan form and after that nothing, we just stayed where we were for a while and came back" I really don't want to bring up what happened, I need to give myself some time

"You're so boring Als, if it was me I would have jumped him already"

I smack her leg and she giggles

"Oh please, you know damn her he's smoking hot. Don't tell me you don't even feel the urge to kiss him"

I blush lightly of embarrassment, "Ok, he's good looking, so? Doesn't mean I'm going to have sex with him after knowing him for 2 days"

"I mean why not? You guys are going to end up together anyway" she says that as if we were talking about the weather

"Sammy we don't know-"

She covers my mouth with her hand again, "'We don't know' my ass Alexandra, you like him, he likes you, you guys are meant for each other, you _will_ end up together. I've already lined up names for your children and started planning your wedding too" she drops her hand and grins

I just stare at her wide-eyed. I knew she was crazy but damn she's something else

I must have said that out loud because she nods

"Ok whatever you want Sammy, I have homework for tomorrow so I'm not sleeping tonight if you want you can put something on the tv"

"Oooooh YES, I'm re-watching The Vampire Diaries" she grabs the remote for my tv and wiggles inside my bed

I groan, "Again, really? Haven't you seen that show already like 50 times since it came out?" when I say 50 I'm not being rhetorical

"And? Look who's talking. You've re-watched Ouran Highschool Host Club the same amount of times because you're still waiting for a season two so you can't shame me"

I glare at her, how dare she bring up my baby, "How about you kiss, kiss, fall down the stairs"

"I don't even get what that means!"

"Ay whatever just watch your little show" I wave my hand dismissively

She grins and put the show on. I've seen it so many times with her that I already know the lines

I block the tv off with the music in my headphones as I do my homework. I've been to high school too many times to count now so doing my homework doesn't take me long 

I convince Samantha to watch Ouran so she gets my joke so we spend the rest of the time binge-watching that 

"Ok, Hikaru needs to watch his temper. I like him but he needs to chill. Tamaki is hilarious. Honey-senpai is officially my baby. Kyoya gets on my nerves but we cool. Mori is just there. Lastly, what the fuck is going on between the twins because that is _not_ brotherly love. Like 'punishment games'? No, still love them though and yes you were right it's good now can we continue"

"What about Haruhi and Renge?" I ask

"Well Haruhi is my spirit animal and Renge is just everything"

I chuckle. I wanted to stop half-way through to see what she thought but she wanted to keep going, I stopped it after episode 15 before things started getting better. To say she liked is an understatement

I'm about to click play when I hear my doorbell ring

I stand up, wrap my blanket around me and head for my door

"You've watched this before, hand the remote and go" she sounds kind of threatening 

_I created something forbidden_

I throw her the remote and flick her off

_Oh well_

I put my hair up in a bun and walk down the stairs turning on a light

"Hey," I open the door to an awkward Jackson

"Hi?" I open the door further to let him in 

I lead him to the kitchen so I can grab a cup of water. I finally notice the time and see it's 1:30 AM

"You want anything to drink?" I ask looking in the fridge

"No thank you I'm fine"

I grab my cup of water and go sit next to him in the counter

"So, what has brought you to my humble home at 1 AM?"

"You little beautiful fucker, I will slap you myself!" I hear Sammy scream from my room

"Language ladies!" my grandpa respond from wherever he is

"Sorry Gramps" she answers back

Jackson and I stare at each other for a second before we start laughing

"Samantha?" he asks nodding towards the stairs

"You bet" I chuckle

After we quiet down I ask again, "So what brings you here?"

"Right. My bookbag, your friends brought it with them, right? I just have something due tomorrow"

"The bag is on the sofa" 

I jump as I hear my mom from behind me

"Mom! Stop scaring me" I put my hand over my heart

I hear Jackson laughing so I hit him upside the head

"What was that for Lexa?"

I raise an eyebrow at him, he just grins

I shake my head remembering my mom is with us

"Mom, this is Jackson. Jackson, my mother"

He puts his hand out, "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Volturi"

My mom ignores his hand and pulls him into a hug

"So formal, please call me Amelia. There are 4 Mrs. Volturi in this household, it'll be easier" she lets go and gives him a warm smile

I clear my throat, "Let's go get your bag, it's pretty late"

I need to get him away from my mom before she starts saying embarrassing things

"Sweetie it's very late, and it's dangerous to be on the road this late at night,"

My eyes widen at what I know she's offering

She turns to Jackson, "Jackson how about you stay the night? We have a guest-room down here and we also have spare clothes"

Sometimes I really wish I had a normal mother where she doesn't literally ship her daughter with a guy every second

"I don't want to be a bother Amelia, I'm not really tired" His statement is contradicted a by a yawn 

"Sure you aren't. Come on, you still have homework to do right? I'll help you out so you can go to sleep" I grab his wrist and start leading him to the living room

"Your father and I will be in our bedroom Alexandra" I hear my mom call as she closes her door

"Didn't need to know that" I mumble 

We find Jackson's bag and go back to sit down in the counter

"Your mother's very beautiful" 

I smile, "Thank y-"

"I can see when you get it from" He grabs his bag and starts taking things out

I feel my cheeks get warm

"What is this about" I look up to see my aunt Jade in front of us

She doesn't sound mad or sad or worries, she's actually just smirking at me

"Great, is everyone going to come down now?" I huff

"You bet we are hon" I feel my Ramona wrap her arms around me from behind

"I swear" I roll my eyes

"We just wanted to come down and meet the young man we've heard so much about" Jade redirects her gaze to Jackson

I go from pink to red just like that

Jackson turns to look at me, "Lexa, I'm honored you talk about me"

"All bad Jackie, all bad" I pat his shoulder

"Wouldn't want it any other way" 

I narrow my eyes at him. _He's good_

"Jackson these are my aunts. Jade" I move my hand to my aunt

"Nice to meet you, ma'am"

"And Ramona" I point behind me

Ramona puts a hand in front of him to stop him from talking, "Calls us by our names, we don't want to feel old"

I turn around to face her, "Says the one that's 2,000 years old"

"Oh shush" she pokes my head

"We will leave you guys to your thing" Jade walks next to us before grabbing Ramona's arm and dragging her away

"You've met half my family now, feel special" I glare at him before grabbing his book to see what to help with

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

It doesn't take us long to finish and I star feeling actually tired. My family is exhausting 

"Come, you must want to sleep, I'll show you your room"

It's obvious Jackson's having a hard time keeping his eyes open

We walk to the guest bedroom downstairs. I turn on the lights and there are clothes on the bed

"You're family's very generous"

"More like annoying but yes. There should be everything in the bathroom if you need it, you know where the kitchen is if you want water, and if you need me by any chance just go to the last floor first door"

I was looking around the room to make sure everything was fine. I turn around when I hear light snores

Jackson's sprawled on the bed still dressed 

I shake my head and go get my blanket from the kitchen, it gets very cold in my house and he's too heavy to move under the covers

I lay the blanket on him and make sure he's covered up

I smile looking at how peaceful he looks sleeping, "Night Jackie" 

I go back to my room taking a quick detour to the kitchen to grab a blood bag for Sammy

I throw the bag at her before plopping down on my bed, "Here you go" I mumble into my pillow

"Thank you" I hear her pause the tv, "Who was that?"

I shake my hand at her as sleep envelops me


	9. ~8~

~8~

I wake up to someone shaking me

"Alexandra! Wake up! Why is Jackson here?!" Sammy let me sleep

"hmmm mm hmmm" I'm not functional right now

I feel a sting on my cheek and spring up

I put my hand on my cheek, "Did you just...bitch slap me?"

She shrugs brushing it off

It doesn't exactly hurt, it just feels ticklish, but why did she have to do that

"Now that I'm awake, what do you need? What was so important that you had to slap me to wake me up?" I rub my eyes to finally focus on her face

"Why is Jackson here?" why does she sound so excited?

"It was late last night and my mom offered for him to stay and he did" I stand from my bed and go change

"Why are you not freaking out?" she asks

"Why are you freaking out?" I roll my eyes

"Well because......I, maybe, I don't know-" she's evading me

"Samantha, what happened?" I glare at her

She stays quiet

"Samantha If you don't..." 

"Fine, I went to the kitchen because I was bored and saw Jackson half naked there, I ran back here and woke you up"

I sigh, frustrated 

"Ok but still, why slap me?"

"Why? You ask why?!?!"

"Relax Sammy, if it's about you seeing Jackson without a shirt then I really don't get why I was awoken for that" I head for my door. I need something to drink, it's too early for this

I hear Sammy following me but she doesn't start talking until we reach the living room

"Are you sure you aren't gay?" 

This question makes me almost trip over thin air 

"What the fuck?" I turn around to look at Sammy wide-eyed

"Alexandra Volturi, how many times do I have to tell you? Watch your language inside this house" I whip back around to notice my grandpa sitting on the couch

"Sorry pops," I say awkwardly 

He stands up and leaves us alone

"Hey, look, you never react to guys. I just told you I saw your boyf-"

I cut her off, "He's not my boyfriend"

"Your boyfriend without a shirt, and you couldn't care less. Don't blame me for thinking you might swing that way" She raises her hands in surrender, I look her straight in the eyes and notice the little smirk playing on her lips, at the same time I hear a click ok a door. Jackson's door

_So that's why we are doing this_

I shake my head and chuckle, "I'm not doing that Sammy"

She pouts, "You're boring"

I grab my bottle from the cabinet and sit down on the sofa right as Jackson enters the living room yawning

"Morning Jackie" I smile before downing half of the bottle

Once I close the bottle and put it back I turn to see Jackson raising his brow in confusion

"Your girlfriend is an alcoholic, get used to it. Als I'm going to my house to get my things, do you want me to pick you up or..." she turns to Jackson

"I'll see you at school" I smile at her 

She nods and skips out the front door

"She sure is a fire-cracker" I hear Jackson say from behind me 

I go sit down next to him, "It has gotten worse over the last decade but I still love her, she's my best friend. She's loyal like no one and can sure as hell keep you entertained"

"That much is correct" I spring up from my seat once I hear my dad's voice 

"Samantha, alongside her family are kind of an extension of ours. We met them when we first got here," he walks towards me, "Samantha and Alexandra clicked right away, even though they were total opposites"

"You can say that again" I mutter 

I hear my dad and Jackson chuckle

"Right. Dad this is Jackson Hunter the son of the Lord and my supposed to be erasthai. Jackson this is my dad. This happened way faster than I would've liked but hey, I haven't been controlling my life lately" I breathe after my little ramble

"Sunshine relax, Jackson nice to meet you. I heard my wife met you last night, as well as her everyone else here would prefer being called by their first name. I'm Henry Volturi" he extends his hand

Jackson grabs my dad's hand and shakes it, "Nice to meet you. I'm sorry but it's going to take me a while to address everyone so casually"

My dad nods and leaves the room, but not before whispering something in my ear that makes my face flush

"You ok?"

"Huh? What? Yeah, I'm fine. Why would you ask that? You hungry? Let's eat" I grab his wrist and lead him towards the kitchen, not giving him any chances to answer

"Dad we are hungry, please food" 

"Sunshine did you get flustered by what I said?"

I glare at him, "Food, please?" I say as sweetly as I can 

"Coming right up" he says before opening the fridge 

"What is he talking about?" Jackson asks from beside me

I turn to glare at him, "Do you want me to hurt you?"

He raises an eyebrow and I swear I can hear his thoughts

_Kinky_

We both start laughing 

"What are you two love birds laughing about?" Ramona asks as she wraps her arm around my shoulders

"Inside joke," I say as I look at Jackson

"Hmm," she hums and goes to grab a blood bag 

"Ok kids, eat up so you're not late" my dad puts two plates filled with french-toast, scrambled eggs, and fruit salad

"You should really become a chef, sir," 

If he doesn't close his mouth he's going to catch flies

I put my finger under his chin and close his mouth, "Keep doing that and I'll have more reason to call you a dog"

"That isn't nice of you honey" what is it with my mom and her coming into rooms unannounced 

"Good morning Jackson" 

Jackson swallows the big bite of eggs he had in his mouth, "Good morning Miss Amelia, I'm sorry for intruding last night but thank you for the bed and food"

"Oh shush, you don't need to be so formal, we already like you"

He sends her a smile, proudly showing his dimples

 _Show off_ I huff

I eat my food leaving like half for later. My parents had gone upstairs again to get ready to hunt

"Are you going to eat that?" Jackson asks me as he finishes washing his dish

"All yours," I slide the plate towards him, "dog" 

He growls at me as he takes the last bite and goes to wash the dish

"Stop being such a kiss-ass or my mom will bother me more about you"

"I'm not being a kiss ass, I'm being well mannered," he says the last word with a strong accent

"Oh you little-" 

I feel a gust of wind right as Jackson appears in front of me with my bag

"Time to go, or we will be late" he smiles at me innocently

I grab my bag and swing it over my shoulder

"Bye everyone!"

We leave the house, get in his car and drive full speed towards school

We get there and notice I only have 3 minutes to get to the other side of campus for my next class

I jump out of the car and run towards my class meeting Dariana outside the door

"Where the hell were you?" she asks 

"Nowhere important, come on we are going to be late" I push her inside the classroom right as the bell rings 

"Teacher is late like always _mama_ relax" she says as I sit down

She goes to grab the seat next to me but someone beats her to it, pushing her out of the way

"Watch it, " she hisses at him

Ignoring Dariana they talk, "Hey Alex" 

I know that voice

I groan out loud, "Alexandra for you. What do you want Karma"

"Just wanted to talk with you" he smiles up at me

"Really now?" I lean closer to him

He nods, hope shining in his eyes. Pitiful really

"Well," I lean even closer, "why didn't you try that 4 months ago when we started school. I'm not stupid. I don't know what you have against Jackson but don't involve me in your little game" I lean back against my seat 

"Wow, I've never seen someone reject the heartthrob of the school" I hear a sarcastic voice behind me

I turn around to see Sebastian, "The only thing throbbing here is probably his dick," I turn back to Karma, "how about you go find someone actually willing to help you with that situation"

He looks mad which only makes this more exciting for me. He stands up to move seats

"I thought you liked them feisty!" I smirk as he sits down all the way in the back of the classroom

"He gives a new definition to Karma's a bitch," Sebastian says 

"Yessir. Hey I didn't know you were in my class" I turn around fully to talk with him

"I know, it's fine. You're very popular after all, no need to notice a mere human" this makes me choke on my saliva

"Me? Popular? You human?" I can't speak properly. He just insinuated he knew I wasn't human

The door finally opens to reveal our fashionably late teacher

I turn around and take my things out when I feel someone tap my shoulder before a note slides down

I open it as quietly as possible,

_Yes, you. Human compared to the popular I mean_

This relaxes me, it was only a metaphor

I quickly scribble down, 'I don't think so' and pass it back before focusing on the board again

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Every class before lunch went by in a blur, and since this morning I've actually been kind of hungry, so I'm grateful

"Lexa" I hear someone call

"Lexa!" 

_Are they calling me?_

"Alexandra!" 

_Ok now that's me_

I stop and turn around abruptly to collide with something hard

I back off and rub my nose, "Hey what the fuck?"

I look up to find Jackson staring down at me

"Dude it felt like it was a wall. What kind of thing do you do to work out? Ow" I stop rubbing my nose

"Are you ignoring me?" He asks

"What? No, why would I" I look at him weird

He just stands there looking at me, not saying anything

I sigh, "Is it because I ran out this morning?"

He nods, I giggle

"Awww the poor babwie needs attention?" I put both my hands on his cheeks

He smiles before fake pouting

"Baka~" I poke his forehead and start walking towards the lunch area outside

He runs up to me, "Did you just call me a cow in Spanish?"

I burst out laughing

"No Jackie, I called you dummy in Japenese" I pat his shoulder before sitting next to Dariana and Samantha

"Hey guys" they both glare at me

"The hell y'all glaring at me for?" I push their heads to the side before sliding Cole's food towards myself

"Hey! That's mine!" He tries to grab the tray

I slap his hand and throw 5 dollars on the table, "Not anymore, go get yourself some more"

"Lexa, let the guy have his food I'll get yours" Jackson grabs the 5 dollars and walks off

I push the tray towards Cole again, "Are you even hungry? You barely eat at lunch most of the time" He states

"We were about to say that" Dariana chimes in

I shrug, "I am, it's weird I know, and I'm actually hungry not thirsty"

"Weird" Sammy says as she plays on her phone

"Here you go" Jackson puts my change and food in front of me

I scarf down my food. I hear the doors open and turn to see Sebastian with a bruised cheek and hand

"Sebas," I call him over earning a glare from Jackson, "come sit with us"

He looks towards Jackson but walks over anyway sitting next to Cole and Dariana 

"Hey, what's up?" He asks as if he didn't look like he just got beat up

"Dude, who did you fight?" Cole asks for me

"Oh no one important, he had it coming," He says nonchalantly 

I stand up, "I'll get you some ice"

He sends me a thankful smile

I walk into the school and feel someone's gaze on me

"What was that about?" Jackson asks

"He looked hurt and I wanted to know what happened, also, when I've noticed him in lunch he's always eating alone so I thought it would be nice for him to eat with us" I hear him growl

"Look Jackie-"

"Jackson"

"Jackie," I challenge him, "he's just a friend. He made me realize I'm too shut off from everyone else. He seems nice and doesn't have ill intentions so relax ok?"

"How can you know that, huh?" He's serious, damn 

"Are all werewolves so caveman-like with their mates?" I ask half-jokingly

"Pretty much, so get used to it" He crosses his arms

I turn around and put my hands behind my head and keep walking towards the nurse's office

When we are walking back I answer him

"There's nothing to get 'used to', you have to understand that I'm allowed to have male friends the same way you are allowed to have female ones. You also need to be able to trust me to know when someone is stepping over the line" 

I'm not in the mood to take shit from anyone today, courtesy of Karma

"Fine, but you have to give me something in return" When did this become a trade?

"Not like I owe you anything but sure" I turn to look at him

"I get one kiss, not right now. I can have your permission to kiss you once whenever I want"

What kind of request is that?

I shrug, "Sure, not like we haven't kissed before anyway. Such a gentleman getting the lady's permission though"

He smiles and opens the door for me

I just roll my eyes and hand Sebastian the ice pack, "Here you go"

"Thanks Alexandra" 

I go to take my previous seat, "You can call me A-"

Jackson grabs me by my wrist and sits me down next to him, I flick his hand

"Just call me Alexa"

Jackson intertwines our fingers under the table 

"I call her Als so don't even try that. Nice to meet you, Sebastian, I'm Samantha, just call me Sammy or Sam" Sammy finally puts her phone away

"The nickname Alex belongs to me, I'm Dariana you can find whatever variation of that if you want" She shrugs

"Nice to meet you man, I'm Cole. There really isn't a variation for that so..." we all chuckle

I jab Jackson in the ribs with an _oof_ from him. I look at him and give Sebastian a side glance as if to tell him to introduce himself

"This is Jackson, I call him Jackie. You should call him Jackson unless you want a beating"

"Well nice to meet you all. I'm Sebastian but if it's better you can call me Sebas"

"I'm going to call you Seabass" Dari points at him

I hit her upside the head

Sebas laughs, "In elementary one of my teachers actually called me that"

"Really? One of my teachers called me Kale once for some strange reason?" Cole intersects 

Jackson ruffles his hair, "Your hair sure looks like kale, mate"

"Don't insult my beautiful mane" he tries to fix his unruly hair

"What are you trying to fix there Cole? Unless you use some gel you can't get _that_ " she circles in his hairs' direction, "under control _mi amor_. When are you going to let me cut it"

Cole looks at his watch, "Never" he runs off as the bell rings

Dariana sighs, "He's so stubborn sometimes. Whatever, see you around Seabass" Sammy and Dari wave at us as they enter the school

"What class do you have next?" I ask Sebas

"Cooking with you" I scratch the back of my neck awkwardly

"Right" I stand up and let go of Jackson's hand

"I'm walking you" he grabs my hand again and starts walking 

I mouth a brief _I'm sorry_ to Sebas, he shakes his head and smiles

The walk to the classroom goes awfully slow and is awkward since Jackson put himself in between me and Sebastian and I don't want him to feel left out so I just don't talk, which is un-usual for me

We arrive at our class and see some students running by

"Jackson ur going to be late, go" 

I let go of his hand but he grabs my chin softly and tilts my head up to kiss me. In front of Sebastian

He pulls away and smirks at me

I glare at him, "So that's why you wanted that. You little..."

"I'm going to be late, I'll drive you home. See you later Lexa"

He turns to acknowledge Sebas

He nods, "Sebastian" and with that, he leaves

"He sure is....." Sebas starts

"Intense? Tell me about it. Let's go, I actually enjoy this class" 

We rush inside and sit on our designated tables as the teacher walks in

"We will be working on Japenese cuisine today, go get your fish" our teacher demands as he passes out the recete 

Now that we know each other, I changed my station to be in front of Sebas so we could talk since our teacher didn't really care what we did, we just had to get the plate done

"Alexa?" Sebas calls me

I hum in acknowledgment trying to slice up my mackerel correctly

"I just wanted you to know, and to let Jackson know I'm no threat to your guys' relationship, the reason I was looking at you the other day in the cafeteria is that you usually only sit with your friends and there were two new people there with you,"

"Stalker-y much?" I say jokingly

His ears turn a little red which makes me laugh

"I didn't mean it like that, I just pay a lot of attention to people around me, especially the popular to avoid them" 

"Good to know, and yes I was aware you aren't interested in me but now I have proof for Jackson, he was....doubtful to say the least" I finish cutting my vegetables 

"Figured, if you want I can back off until he feels comfortable"

I shake my head, "No, you aren't doing anything wrong and he has to know that I am allowed to have friends from the opposite sex that don't want something with me. You can hang out with us, it's fine. Of course, if you can bear with Jackson sending you a few glares from time to time"

"I already am, and I would like that, your friends seem very nice"

I put my fish in the oven alongside the vegetables

"Wait 'till they get comfortable with you, they will insult you left and right"

We both laugh and get shut up by the teacher

"I'm glad I caught you staring the other day"

He blushes a little

"Come one we need to finish this," I say before we both get to work on our dish


	10. ~9~

**_Friday_ **

"What does Mr. Lopez want us to do? Like how long does it take people to read such a short book" Sammy huffs in frustration as we walk out of our last class of the day

Dariana chuckles, "Sammy you know how lazy humans are, just use your phone the rest of the time, that's what I do, especially when Karma gets on my nerves which is more than half the time"

"I wanted to ask you, how the hell can you keep up with him, he's such a pain in the ass" I ask Dariana

"My sweet sweet Alex, I've had to deal with you and Samantha for centuries, a little kid bitching is easy to ignore"

Samantha and I look at her in offense but she has a point

Jackson comes up to us and grabs my hand

"Why do you like grabbing my hand so much?" I ask not really complaining

"Because I just do, are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" Did I forget something?

Samantha slaps my arm which makes earns her a hit on the head from Dariana

"Your date," Sammy says as she rubs the spot on her head where Dariana hit her

"How is it possible that your friend remembers your date and not you?" Jackson asks

"Samantha gets more invested in my life than her own, that's why" I glare at Sammy and she sticks her tongue out to me

"But to answer your question, no, I'm not ready" I gesture to my outfit that consists of a big hoodie with sweatpants and sneakers. Jackson's seen I don't really care for appearances, even for guys, _especially_ for guys

"Give us a second," Dariana grabs my hand and starts rushing me inside a bathroom

"What are you guys doing?" Samantha walks in with her makeup bag and clothes. _My_ clothes

"When did you get that"

Neither of them answers my questions, they just start letting my hair down and changing me

Before I know it my hoodie is replaced with a loose tan-colored crop top, my sweats are suddenly a pair of green cargo pants with a chain across the waist, and my sneakers are now my Killua shoes. I won't admit it but I love this outfit

I look at myself in the mirror, "Well at least you guys didn't go all out, but what the fuck"

I blink and now I have 3 thin silver chains that go from choker to chain, and rings on both hands. It looks casual but also my style, which I appreciate

I put my hands in front of me, "Ok, that's enough, I look fine"

Samantha looks at me with a bored expression, "You are not leaving until we say you are ready" then she nods to Dari

Dariana grabs me from behind and turns my head towards Samantha. I try to move my head so that Sammy can't put makeup on me but Dariana is older than me, which means she's stronger, so she keeps my head in place easily

After they've had their fun with me Dari lets me go, I turn around to inspect myself in the mirror again

Sammy applied a light brown shadow on my eyes with a little bit of mascara and think wing, some highlight, and nude lipstick. My hair is also half up with a white clip keeping the bits of hair together showing off the lighter colors of my hair

"You like?" Sammy beams at me

"I feel uncomfortable," I say honestly

Dari scoffs, "Do you want to look like a clown?"

"I already do but we won't talk about that. Can I leave now?"

They both nod and start picking up their things

I exit the bathroom and walk out the school to meet with Jackson in his car

"You look beautiful Lexa" He tells me before opening my door

I wait for him to get in his seat, "Thanks Jackie but aside from the clothes it's not really me"

He smiles, "I figured, which is why I stole some wipes from my sister a while back, they're in the glove box if you want"

I look at him bewildered. How could he be prepared for that?

"What? You never wear makeup, you flinch when Samantha or Dariana take their makeup out, you don't pay attention to your physique aside from the day we met, I just put two and two together, and considering how Samantha acts I knew I was going to see you with makeup forced by her at least once"

How does he notice such little things?

I grab the packet from his glove box and start taking the little makeup I had on off

"So, where are we going?" I ask once I'm finally free of the beauty stuff

He speeds up and we start going towards the city limits

"Jackie I can't leave the city remember. Your dad made sure of it" I try not to sound bothered by the fact

"It's me, it's my car, they can't do anything about it and it's not outside the limits anyway. I'm sorry about what my dad did by the way." He gives me a side glance while he grabs my hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze, "I know we already went here but I want to show you another side of it"

_The lake_

Even though it's only been a few days since I met Jackson I've gotten way to attached to him, I blame it on the bond, I've gotten jealous of stupid things which I try to ignore, my heart stutters when he comes closer or grabs my hand, and little things like that. Aside from Jackson and Cole I still don't like werewolves. Those ignorant pricks didn't even look at me for the past 4 years but the second the popular kid of the school gets near me they all come trying to "steal me away" to be the one to get the glory of it. I will never understand guys

Unlike last time, we park the car further away from the trail. He takes a basket out from his trunk and goes to put it down somewhere while I get out of the car

"I could've helped you with that you know?" I scoff playfully when he gets back

I head for the trail but Jackson grabs my hand to stop me

I turn my head in confusion

"We're going somewhere else first," he starts walking away from the trail, "trust me?"

I sigh and follow him

Before I can process what's happening Jackson disappears

"Jackie?" I look around

Silence

"Jackson!"

"Come catch me" he breathes down my neck and runs off

I turn around, "Wanker!" I say in my best British accent

I hear his laugh echo through the trees

I see something move from the corner of my eye and start running towards it

Jackson is way faster than me but for some reason, it looks like I'm not as slow as always, He's close enough for me to see him which with my usual speed wouldn't be possible

I'm not used to going this fast so when Jackson makes a sharp right turn I can't follow suit, I try to stop but a cliff comes up and all I'm able to do it jump

I close my eyes not wanting to feel this

If I was completely a vampire this wouldn't do anything to me just a little pain, and if I was completely human I would for sure die, but what I'll get are broken bones that I'll have to put back and shoulder pain for a few days

I open my eyes to see if there's any branches I could grab onto when I feel Jackson turn me before hugging me and putting his back to face the ground

A few seconds later we hit the ground but I don't feel the impact, I hear leaves rustling and Jackson grunting

After we finally stop rolling I decide to open my eyes as I don't feel the soft cold grass under my face

I look around and see I'm on top of Jackson. He has a grimace on his face

I roll off him as he tries to stand up before laying back down

He tries one more time but I put my hand on his chest to push him down gently

"Take it easy Jackie, you took a big fall for me" I say

He opens his eyes, "I know you're part vampire but you're also human and I didn't want you to get hurt"

I smile at him, "But you getting hurt is fine?"

He lets out a shaky laugh, "Give me a few minutes and I'll be good as new"

I sigh and lay down next to him

"You're crazy" I turn my head to look at him

"Says the girl that defies and talks back to a lycan"

I ignore him and look up to the clear blue sky

"I have a question"

Thant's a first, "Shoot"

"How does the whole half-human, half-vampire thing work?"

Ah, right he only met me like a week ago

I turn my head to look at him, "Well, basically it's a mix. I get thirsty not hungry but human food can satiated that thirst to an extent. I can't be killed by human things like a bullet, drowning, stabbing, etc... but I will be hurt, just not to the extent of death. Let's take the fall you just took as an example, I would've broken some bones that once put in their place would've been healed in a few hours and the only thing that it would leave behind would be a little soreness for the weekend. I can't run as fast as normal vampires but I am way faster than your average human, why I was running that fast back there is a mystery to me. As I've mentioned before my body doesn't have the inhuman shine a normal vampire has, it just looks like I put on a little too much highlighter but it can be easily covered up with some makeup, I just don't bother. My eyes don't change colors like a normal vampires would. Same as running my senses aren't as sharp as a vampire but close enough. And that's about it...any other questions?"

I don't really mind sharing this with Jackson since we are going to be spending a lot of time together

"Many more" he smiles at me and we both sit up

"Ok then let's do this, today is your day to ask questions and I'll when I want to, deal?" I stretch my hand out

He shakes my hand, "You don't have to answer everything"

I give him a thankful smile and he stands up

"Let's go, I brought food"

This makes me spring up and start running absolutely nowhere to see where he leads me. He catches up in less than a second and starts going back up to the cliff

Once we are back up I make sure to not go as fast and follow his every movement to not have a repeat of the fall.

I realize we've arrived once I see the checkered blanket on the floor with a basket that has my mouth watering from the different scents emitting from it.

I approach the blanket on the floor thinking we are on a tall hill, maybe even small mountain, but we're actually on another cliff, a cliff that looks out to the lake and everything around it. When we first came I thought the view was beautiful, from up here it's even more, there's just no words to describe it.

"You like it?" Jackson asks me while he sits down

I join him, "Yes! How did you find this place?" I grab one of the sweets he takes out from the basket

"My mom told me about it before I left the city. She said she found it when she was young, it helped her escape her chaotic world. It's not that hard to find if you're just running by but my mom didn't want anyone else here so when she married my father she claimed this part of the land, no one from my family really bothers leaving the house and the staff just doesn't have time. My mother can't leave the house anymore so one day when...." He trails off and I'm about to tell him it's fine but he just shakes his head and continues, "one day she just told me to come here, that it would help me. Ever since that day this has been my 'third home'"

I nod along as he finishes his short story, "What's your second home then?"

He raises his hand, "It's my turn"

Ah, right, I forgot about that

"How did you come to be? Wait, that sounds super creepy..."

I can't hold in my laughter at the way he worded things, but I get what he means so I just start explaining

"My dad got turned when he was 25 and he likes to always go by that age. At the time he was working in the same agency as my mom, he took care of catering while my mom took care of planning events. In one of the weddings that they ended up working on together there was a massive shooting," I turn to look at a very confused Jackson, "jealous crazy ex," I shrug, "point is, my dad was still relatively new to his 'only animals' life. My mom is very observant, and she noticed the inner battle that my dad was having. My moms family was very superstitious, she never really believed in werewolves or vampires but she was intrigued so she did research never thinking she would encounter one. That research included Twilight and, well, it wasn't hard to help him. She went up to him and tried to distract him. After that my mom admitted that she knew what he was and they went from there.

"My mom was 22 when they met, they dated for 4 years before they got married. They decided to do a normal honeymoon and were aware of the unlikely possibilities. My mom knew that she either stayed away from my dad and stayed human or stayed with him and turned vampire. She went with the latter but wanted to experience humanity for a little longer, so when she found out she was pregnant with me she had no problem with it, my dad was a little more against it just because it wasn't an easy pregnancy for my mom but he wanted a child nonetheless. They took the safer route and made my mom give birth early. I'm a premature baby" I give an innocent smile, "but yeah, once I was out they turned my mom and we've been a family ever since"

Jackson gives me a challenging look, "So Twilight but not"

I scoff and hit his arm playfully

"Whatever, my turn. How many siblings do you have?" I ask wanting to know more about his family

"I have 2 sisters. One older, one younger. My older sister, Penny, is 200 years older than me and my little sister, Kay, is barely 150"

I stop to think for a second, "So you're telling me only 5 people live in that big ass mansion? I knew you were rich but damn" I raise my voice a little

He laughs, "You're rich too, your house has 3 floors, a pool, and a library and a big garage"

"I'm not even going to ask how you know that because I'm sure Ramona gave you a tour before I woke up, but for your information, I have a family of 9, which out of those 9, 8 are fully vampires who can't leave the house unless it's cloudy or raining, they can't sleep or eat so the garage, library, and pool are for entertainment. If we could be more modest about it we would"

He raises his hands, "Point well taken, my bad"

"Thank you" I cross my arms and pout

He bumps my shoulder with his and I let go of my position

"What's your favorite color?" he asks

"I changes a lot with the decade but currently orange or red. Yours?"

"Purple" interesting

"Aside from you, does anyone else in your family have an erasthai?" He did mention his older sister was older than him so maybe she found hers

"Yes, my older sister Penny has a mate. She found him pretty early on actually, she was 500 I think. If lycans do have erasthais it usually takes a lot more years than that"

"Interesting" maybe his life is not so boring as I had thought

"Have you ever dated before?"

"Yes and no" I answer but this answer seems to confuse him

"Yes because I've been on a few dates here and there but it never really turned into anything, so no. It was more for means to an end, if you know what I mean. I am 1,800 after all, I'm not going to spend all that time alone"

He just nods

"What's your sister's mate like?"

"Well for starters his name is X, he wasn't a lycan he was human. He worked as trainer for the FBI so he's really good in combat, he's taught me all I know. He's a nice dude I guess, very composed, too composed if you ask me but he cares for my sister so there really isn't much to it" he shrugs

So this mate wasn't a lycan to begin with either. I hope to meet them one day, I want to know how that went

"What's your favorite food?"

"Human or vampire?"

"Both"

"Well my favorite type of human food, which I haven't had in a very very long time is called pepito. I tried it the last time we traveled to South America. It's bread with steak, melted cheese, and stick fries. And vampire, I really haven't found a favorite since there's not a lot to pick from here, but I drink mostly deer and elk because it's overpopulated" I shrug

"So _that's_ why I haven't seen deer around here"

_What? But my family made sure they were overpopulated. We don't want to hurt the environment, I'll have to ask Pops to check again, what else could we..._

"Lexa, I'm kidding," He says lightly

I sigh, "You scared me"

He laughs and I shove him

The next few hours go by with us just asking questions and finishing the snacks he brought

I almost choke on my last cracker when Jackson speaks again

"What happened last time we came here?"


	11. ~10~

**_Jackson's POV_ **

I'm scared I overstepped my boundaries by asking her that, it's just been bothering since that day. I always made fun of my sister when she found her erasthai because she went from not caring about anyone, not even her own family, to she would do anything for this person. I didn't get it until I met Alexandra, everyday is so hard knowing that she isn't officially mine, and even though I know she doesn't belong to me I just want her to not leave, but I care for her and I know that what happened that day wasn't just anything.

I'm about to take back the question when she lets out a shaky breath

"Seeing you in your lycan form triggered some memories I wanted to keep buried" that's all she says

"You don't have to- "

She raises her hand to silence me and takes a deep breath

"One of the reasons I see your kind such a way are those memories,"

She turns to face me fully

"My uncle died many many years ago, I was a child. One day when my uncle, Gio, and my aunt, Jade, were out hunting they crossed paths with a lycan. Turns out my uncle was the erasthai to this lycan, but like you she didn't take the aggressive way and claimed him, she gave him an option. They agreed to meet a week later to hear if Gio would accept the woman or not, even though it was clear to Gio that same day that he didn't want anyone besides my aunt. The week after he went to meet up with the lycan but someone went in her place, he still declined the offer though. The next day is what re appeared in my mind," I know she's not stopping there so I grab her hands to encourage her

"I was playing with Gio in our backyard when a creature started appearing from the forest behind our house. It was a lycan. I was very confused at the time because I'd never seen one in they wolf form, but before I could as my uncle about it he ran towards it and started fighting, I can't remember the specifics because I don't want to bring all of it out at the same time, but I do remember me screaming for help once the lycan started to tear apart Gio. After that it just skips to me being outside our house that was burning, and Jade being held back from trying to help my uncle I imagine, being the little kid I was," she lets out a humorless chuckle, "I went inside the house because I could still see the creature inside, I was right in front of it as it bared its teeth at me, it was obvious they were only there to hurt Gio. It ran off and I wanted to follow it but I bumped into something, while I looked down I remembered I was surrounded by fire so I got scared again once I realized that what I bumped into was my uncle's head. I don't remember the rest of that day, or week as a matter of fact, but I'm sure I don't want to"

She must not be aware that she's crying and trembling by the end of her memory because when I hug her she stiffens in confusion

I pull away, "Lexa, you're crying"

She raises her hand to wipe her cheek, "I'm crying? Oh..."

Tears keep streaming down her face but there's no emotion behind them. After a while they finally stop, leaving her with red eyes

"He was a good man you know, Gio I mean" I'm taken aback when she starts talking out of nowhere about the very thing she was just crying about

"I would never tell my uncle Chad but I always did like Gio more. Maybe it was because he would give me candy behind my parents back or because no matter how hungry, tired, or mad he was, if I wanted to play with my dolls he would always put those things aside and play with me. He really loved Jade. I've always said I want a relationship like my parents but if I'm being honest I want what Jade and Gio had. He was a kind man, very quiet if you didn't know him. He loved his job, he was a kindergarten teacher. The one thing he didn't like about immortality was the no offspring thing, which would explain why he spoiled me so much, and even though my parents had what he could never get, he didn't feel anything but love towards them. Oh, right, I have this thing where I can sense people's emotions when they are strong enough, it's very weird. But yeah, besides my aunt, it hit me the most in the family when he died,"

I can't imagine the numbness Alexandra must've put herself through to be able to say all of that so...bluntly.

I have many things I want to tell her. How angry it makes me someone from my kind did that, how justifiable it is for her not to have liked me or Cole or any wolf for that matter, but all I manage to get out is a mere "I'm sorry"

She blinks a few times, probably to wet her eyes again, "For what? As you said when we met, neither you nor your family did this"

"No, but you still had to go through it, and that's not fair"

"Life isn't fair Jackie," she shrugs

I grab her by the shoulders and shake her a little bit, "Alexandra! Stop trying to burry the emotions, that is _not_ the correct way to cope with this!" I practically scream

Her eyes shift from shock to anger and she shakes my hands off, "What do you want from me Jackson?! Do you want me to break down again? Do you want me to go on a murderous hunt for whoever did this to Gio? Do you want me to hurt?!" she raises her voice to match mine

"No..." I barely whisper

"Then what is it, because locking it away is all I know, and as far as I'm concerned it's worked so far!" she stands up

"No it hasn't and you know it" I pick everything up and stand up too

"And who are you to tell me what works for me and what doesn't?"

I stay quiet

"As far as I'm concerned you and your _are_ involved with this and you're just lying," She tells me, her tone dripping with venom, letting me know she means it

It's _my_ turn to get mad

"Really? We're going there? Tell me what the fuck my family would get out of doing that!"

"Oh I don't know, you lycans make no sense to me, never have, never will! You are monsters after all right? Maybe you're sadists!"

This hurts me. She knows what I think of that side of me, and she used it to hurt me

If I open my mouth again I'm going to say something I regret so I just walk away

"Where are you going?" her voice goes down but it still isn't anywhere near calm so I just keep walking trying to calm myself down

I hear her following me but she's keeping her distance now

When we get inside the car I need to roll the windows down to be able to breathe fresh air, her scent intoxicates me

Instead of driving towards her house I go towards mine

"Where are we going? Take me home Jackson" she's still mad

I breathe deeply before answering her, "Neither of us are in any state to be driving or running so we are going to my house since it's only a few minutes away, we are staying there. You can leave first thing in the morning if that's what you really want"

She goes to argue but stays quiet

We spent more time on the lake than I had expected and It's already 8. I know she says she doesn't need to sleep but she looks tired. No matter how much her words can and did hurt me I still care

Not even 5 minutes later we drive up to my garage and we both get out and start walking towards the main entrance, she still walks at a distance

Hiram opens the door for us but doesn't bother to ask about Alexandra

When we get to the stairs Kay comes springing out of her room with a smile

"Jackson!" her smile brightens when she sees Alexandra

Before she can ask more questions I talk, "Please take her to the spare room on my side"

I don't say anything else before running off to my office to write a note and running back to X's office. I slide the note under his door and head to my room, change, and go back to the gym downstairs

Once I get there the slightest bit of my energy has been drained, good

"What was so important that you asked me to come here?" X asks

"I had a discussion with my mate and got angry and I don't know how else to take it out so could we practice a little bit?"

As I mentioned to Alexandra before X is my 'teacher' in a sense. Everything I know about battle I learned from him and he knows that I won't ask him to train outside of our set hours unless it's important, so he nods and goes to grab some knives

"You asked me to come here just to spar or did you feel like talking about it?" He hands me a knife and we both get in stance

We lunge at each other and start evading and attacking, "I can't really tell you what we talked about, but it was emotional for her. What pissed me off was that she acted like it didn't matter, when it really did"

I hiss and pull back for a second to look at my arm. His knife grazed my skin but I don't waste time going back to the fight, it'll heal in a few second anyway

"Talk and fight"

"Right, so, she didn't react how someone should when talking about what she said, she kept it away. It's most likely a coping mechanism for her, not good, but effective"

"That's what I tried telling her. I'm aware that maybe the way I said it wasn't the best way of approaching the subject but she wasn't grasping it"

"I understand that but I still don't see the need of this session"

I'm starting to sweat, even though I'm older than X he's way more skilled than me

"We started arguing over that and she brought up my lycan side, how I feel about it to be more specific"

"Ah, I see. Does she know how you feel about it?"

"Yes"

"You said she was a vampire?"

"Half-vampire"

"They have quite a temper," He stops and lets the knife go which lets me know to stop too

"My honest opinion is that she didn't mean it. She didn't like that you judged her way of coping with things and in the middle of her anger she threw at you what she thought would hurt you too. If you say you cant tell me what the conversation was about that led to this fight I imagine it is a sensitive topic for you, and by what you've told me about her it prob ably wasn't easy for her to say it either. I'm sure she's calmed down by now, so I recommend fixing things in an orderly manner but be more careful next time. I know from own experience that getting someone to open up isn't the easiest,"

I chuckle at this. I don't know how he got my sister to open up but he did

"so just listen to her side of the story and figure it out, that's all I can say"

He taps my shoulder and leaves

He is right, I was harsh towards her too but it still hurts. I shake my head and go to put the pieces of metal away before leaving the gym. On my way up the stairs I see Kay again, this time she looks mad

"She's in her room. I don't know what happened between you two but you better fix it, I like her"

I roll my eyes and ruffle her hair before proceeding to my room

I take a quick shower and change my clothes before laying down in bed. I'm tired but no matter how much time I spend with my eyes closed I can't seem to fall asleep. I need to talk with Alexandra

I stand up, grabbing a shirt on my way out of my room. Once I'm in front of her door I debate whether or not to go in. As X said I'm sure she's calm by now but is she willing to talk? I don't want to make things worse, because even though I can speak with her now if by accident she says something again I don't think I'll be able to stop myself from saying something back

My thoughts are interrupted by her voice on the other side, "Come in"

I open the door slowly to see her on the bed hugging her legs to her chest while looking down at the matress

"Can't sleep?" I ask closing the door behind me

She just shakes her and continues to stare at the bed sheets

He back is against the headboard and the bed is big enough for me to sit at the end of it and be a few feet away from her

I'm usually the one to start the conversation but I can't seem to find the correct words

"I'm sorry, I had no right to say that about you and your family. I also said what I knew would hurt you so we would stop talking about me" she finally lifts her head up and looks at me

I give her a somber smile, "I'm not going to say it's ok, because it wasn't, but I see why you did it. I'm sorry too, it isn't my place to tell you how to deal with your emotions"

We stay quiet for a few seconds

"But you were right. That's the thing, you were right and that's why I got so mad. I have no other way of dealing with things and being told that it's not effective makes me realize what I already knew but didn't want to face. I have a lot of baggage Jackie, I'm sure you've noticed and for someone with a mind that won't forget even the smallest detail the easiest thing to do is burry it" her voice cracks a little at the end

"Still, I was cruel to you with what I said, and I want to let you know I don't really think that. Not about you anyways" I hadn't noticed that part of my anger was actually fear. Fear of her finally realizing what I was

"I want you to not have to hide things with me Lexa. I want to help you with all that baggage, for you to not have to bury it anymore, to not worry about it" Now I'm the one looking down at the sheets

I snap my head up when I hear her sniffle

I instantly go to her side and hold her

"It hurts Jackson. It hurts so much" her voice comes out trembling

I tighten my grip a little and rub her back to calm her down, "I'm sure it does Lexa, and the more you keep it in the more it's going to hurt"

Unlike her tears from earlier, these have emotions behind them. They have everything she's been holding in about that past for who knows how long, so when she doesn't let go I don't either

Seeing her cry genuinely hurts me but it's better to see her let it all out now than for her to not cry at all and hurt herself even more

We stay holding each other for a while, and I'm about to let go when she speaks again

"I'm scared Jackie" she raises her head to look at me

"What of?"

She lets me go and looks away. She wipes away the tear stains on her cheeks and takes a deep breath

"I'm scared of this" she waves in between us

My expression falls a little

"I didn't mean that, I meant...I'm becoming more and more attached to you by the day, and even though I would like to blame is on the whole bond thing I know I can't because that's not true. Don't take this further ahead than what I mean either. I'm still not ready for the whole 'being your erasthai thing' or maybe even being your girlfriend but I am more willing to get there than I was before"

The sincerity in her eyes let me know this, again, wasn't something easy for her to admit

I gently grab her face and leave a kiss on her forehead, "That's all I need"

I stand from her bed, "Now, I'm sure you must be tired now so I will leave you to sleep, if you need me I'm across the hall to the right ok?"

She nods and gives me a smile. I turn around and walk towards the door

I was kind of hoping she would ask me to stay with her tonight but that's just foolish on my part considering everything she just told me

"Jackie?" maybe...

I turn around, "Yes?"

"Oh...um, good night"

Again, foolish, "Sleep well Lexa"

I exit her room and head to mine. Once inside I go take a shower again to take my mind off things

It is comforting to know she's actually willing to do this now. The first day I met her I wasn't completely willing to be with her either which why I had so many mood swings. The bond is not something you can easily ignore so by day two I just accepted it and tried to dial it down

One of the main reasons why I wasn't so willing to accept her was because of my easily dwiddled ego. I don't like skipping from girl to girl, but it was nice getting attention from them, so to have her run _away_ from me didn't sit well, then later that night I found that she could make me very vulnerable which made matters worse because I didn't like it, but after a talk with X, again, I just let things take whatever course it needed

After my shower I change for what feels like the fifth time tonight and lay down once more. Unlike last time, I do feel my eyes drifting off so I just let a content sigh go and doze off


	12. ~11~

**Alexandra's POV**

I hear a loud knock on the door, I ignore it wanting to sleep in, I don't care if I'm late to school.

"Samantha, I'm sleeping in leave me alone" she should be able to hear me

The knocking doesn't cease after a few minutes and it's starting to annoy me

"Oh my god, Samantha what the fuck do you want?!" I spring up from the bed rubbing my eyes

Why is my room so bright? I look around and remember where I am and regret my outburst immediately

"I am so sorry, come on in"

At this Kay comes in with a slight smile on her face

I cover my eyes and bow my head

"I am so sorry Kay, I forgot where I was for a second and I thought you were someone else"

She chuckles

"I'm sorry..." I mumble again

God I just met Jackson's little sister last night and I already cussed her out, I want to crawl in a hole and stay there

"Relax. I am offended that you forgot my name though, Kay is easy enough isn't it?"

I plop down on the bed and cover my face with the pillow, "I wasn't trying to cuss you out, I thought it was my best friend Samantha, she loves to bother me in the morning"

The pillow is taken away from my face

"Don't worry about it I was just kidding. I would love to let you sleep more, but my father asked for you to come down to breakfast," she sends me an apologetic smile

I rush out of the bed and shake her shoulders, "What?! Your dad? Asked to have breakfast with me?!" I can't do this, I'm not ready. It's the Lord if where I live. It's Jackson's dad. It's the man that doesn't let my family leave

Just like that panic turns into anger that I try to suppress for now

"You ok?" Kay takes me hands off her shoulder and holds them

I snap back to reality and put on a smile, "Yeah, just freaking out, It is Jackson's family after all"

"Well you only met me last night, and we get along" I shake my head and let go of her hands to head to the bathroom, "You don't act like his sister, and I don't know, it's different"

I stop right at the door, "Wait! I don't have anything to wear, I can't meet you dad with what I had on last night"

She waves her hands at me, "Go shower, I'll bring you something of mine I think it'll fit you"

I sigh and walk in the bathroom to brush my teeth and shower

I turn the water hot to relax me. Yesterday was a roller coaster, from the run and fall, to the picnic, to the questions and the argument, for it to all end on a kind of good note? I don't know, but I almost asked Jackson to spend the night with me, what's going on?

I groan out load before turning the shower off and stepping out into the room again

This room is even bigger than mine. It's filled with baby blue and white all around which gives it a nice breezy feel, it has an empty walk-in closet and a bed that is big enough to fir my whole family. Don't even get me started on the bathroom.

On the bed, there was a purple floor-length dress that looked too elegant to be worn on a day to day basis. It's a lavender color, and it is layered. The top layers are made of see-through lace-like fabric. The neck is V-shaped and it reaches too far down, I'm scared it might show a little too much. In the torso, it has a thick lilac belt to give the dress shape. The sleeves are the same material as the top layers of the dress and reach the floor as well. It has an opening from the shoulder to the forearm, it closes and opens again for the remainder of the material. I consider not even wearing it, for me, this dress should be worn to a party or something, but then again these people are super-rich, I'm sure this is a regular outfit to use around the house.

I put on the dress with the shoes I had on yesterday, not like you can see them anyway, and blow dry my hair before leaving the room. I start walking towards the dining hall. This house is big and all but I've been on enough school trips to the infamous "Lord mansion" to know my way around it.

That sounds creepy

On my way to the hall I pass by many maids and butlers who bow or curtsy at my presence, I don't like it. I just nod and give them a friendly smile

"Ms. Volturi?" I hear a soft voice from behind me

I turn around to be met with a beautiful young lady, but by her smell I know she's a werewolf

I smile not knowing how to respond, I think I'm going to be smiling a lot around here considering I was never taught etiquette

"Please follow me, Ms. Volturi, my name is Lyla, I will be serving you while you stay here"

She starts walking, going in the direction of the dining hall but does an unexpected turn, I follow her nonetheless not wanting to contradict her and sounds like a creep

We stop in front of two big white doors. She knocks twice

"My Lord? I've got Ms. Volturi for you"

Lord? Lord Liam? Is this his office? Why was I brought here?

"Come in," a deep voice says from the other side. It sounds both scary and calming

Lyla opens the door for me and mouths _'good luck'_ and closes the door behind me once I've fully stepped inside

I just stand at the entrance awkwardly not knowing where to go. I haven't even set eyes on the person behind the desk

"Alexandra, please, take a seat," an unexpectedly high-pitched voice says

I turn my head and realize that Jackson's mom is standing next to the Lord. Jackson got his eyes from his mother, that much is obvious.

I do as I am told and sit down in front of both of them

The room is filled with awkward silence until Mrs. Hunter finally talks

"It is lovely to meet you Alexandra. I've heard you were beautiful but you're truly breathtaking"

Her words make me feel a little better and I finally dare to look up, "Thank you, likewise. You know what they say, behind every man there is a strong beautiful woman"

I don't really like this saying, but it seems to please her. That is not the case with the Lord

"Ms. Volturi are you aware why you have been brought here?" He stares at me so intently that I feel like looking away, but I'm stronger than that so I just sit up straight and return the look

"No, my Lord" I hate calling him that but what can I do about it

My response seems to annoy him the slightest bit while I can see Mrs. Hunter trying to hide a smile

"There were rumors that Jackson had found his erasthai and that she was brought here last night, I wanted to confirm said rumors" He's still trying to glare me down but I don't back out that easily

"Well, here I am in flesh, _sir_ " I sit back putting my leg over the other one and squaring my shoulders

"That much I can see," He turns to his wife, "Leave us for a few moments, go wait in at the table"

"Please let me stay dear, I would like to look at her a little longer," She says with a little tremble in her voice. Is she scared?

He opens his mouth to argue but decides against it, "Very well,"

"Let's get straight to the point. I don't approve of you as my son's erasthai" He says nonchalantly like this was a business deal

I feel my heart drop but conceal my emotions on my face to not give anything away

"May I ask why?" I say as calmly as possible without sounding curt

"You will bring nothing to this family. You're not even fully a vampire to say you could bring a hybrid into this world, you're family decided to not have a social status which means you are a nobody, and I do not approve of you."

I bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from cussing him out and saying things I really shouldn't say

I just nod in understanding but I can't stay quiet, "Very well,"

He looks pleased with my answer but I'm not done

"But I do not agree. First of all, I do believe you should include your son in this conversation, considering this has everything to do with him, or can it be that my Lord is scared of what he might do?" I keep eye contact and smirk while he scowls at me. Before he can even let out another word I continue, "Second, you should put his happiness first, that is, if you truly consider yourself his father,"

He stands up and slams his hands down on the table making his wife flinch, "I am his father! How _dare_ you speak to me in such a way child?! Do you know the things I could do?!" He raises his voice at me and I feel danger oozing out of him but I could care less

I stand up as well and put one hand on the desk, "And lastly, I don't follow orders from anyone. Not society, not Jackson, and most definitely not you." I say as threateningly as I can, "Now," I dust off my lap and walk around behind the chair, "if you excuse me I will be taking my leave"

I turn around and stop in my tracks when I come face to face with Jackson

He sends a weak smile to his her, "Mum," then turn to his father and nods curtly, "Father"

He puts his hand in the small of my back and rushes me out

Once outside I let out a breath I wasn't even aware I was holding in

After I've calmed down I turn to Jackson

"How much did you hear?" I ask while he guides me who knows where

"Since he said he didn't like you. I was about to go in but you answered rather calmly and wanted to hear what you had to say, then I walked in when he slammed his hands on his table but saw how composed you were and decided to let you do your thing" He shrugs

I swat his arm, "You shouldn't eavesdrop"

Right after I finish the sentence I stumble on the dress and trip. But like any good Wattpad story, Jackson catches me

"Goddamn it, does your sister wear this stuff all the time?" I scoff and turn to him

He isn't look me in the eye. What is he staring at I dont have a necklace...

I cover my chest and snap my fingers, "Eyes up here buddy. I knew this dress was a bad idea"

I open the door that I assume is the entrance to the big fancy table but Jackson turns me around and wraps his arms around my waist

"Please excuse my rudeness m'lady," He's trying to joke because he's over doing the accent

I wrap my hands around his neck, "I don't know if I'll be able to excuse such indecency young sir,"

We both laugh, "No but really, I am sorry I didn't mean to stare. The dress looks amazing on you, but I am a man after all"

I roll my eyes at him

"How cute" Someone clears their throat 

I turn my head to find Kay, and who I assume are Penny and her mate X sitting across from each other while the Lord and his wife sit on each end of the table

_How did they get here before us?_

I let go of Jackson and go to take a seat next to Kay. Jackson takes my chair out for me and gives me a peck on the cheek before sitting down

"I'm Penny, Jackson's older sister, it is a pleasure to finally meet you" Penny says from accross us

"We've heard many great things baout you, I am X, Penny's mate" He tries to smile but it look weird on his stoic face

"The pleasure is all mine," 

Multiple butlers walked in with silver covered platters and put one in front of each of us 

After everything is set Kay elbows me and shows me what I have to do with the napkin

I mouth 'Oh' and do as she showed 

I move my head towards Jackson a little bit, "It's just like the movies"

He chuckles and I hear his dad scoff

Breakfast is delicious but incredibly awkward

Jackson's mom once again breaks the ice, I assume she's to having to do this kind of thing

"So, Alexandra, how about you tell us a little more about yourself?"

I lightly wipe my mouth before speaking

I decide to show Lord Liam just how much of a 'nobody' I am, "Well, like my lord said before, I'm really a nobody, so my life really isn't that interesting. But do ask any questions"

Kay and Penny choke on their food while X raises an eyebrow to Jackson and Jackson takes a sip of his juice to hide his smirk

"Well, if it isn't rude, I would love to know your age. A lady that presents herself the way you do can't be that young" she sends me a warm smile

"I don't mind, I am 1,800 years old," I really don't mind people knowing my age, unless they are human, of course, then I am 18

"Wow, that is very impressive. You're even older than Penny. Almost as old as Miss Aitana" X says while putting down his utensils

Miss who?

Penny mouths 'mom'

I turn to Miss Aitana, "That is a lovely name Mrs. Hunter"

"Thank you dear, but to both you and X just call me Aitana, after all these years and he still won't do it" she chuckles

"It doesn't feel proper to do" X defends himself

"Even after so many years? you truly never change. Alexandra I would love to know more about your family" Aitana says after the plates are taken away by the maids

Lord Liam seems intrigued by our conversation now

"Well there really isn't much to my family, the only thing I could say is that we are a family of 9," I count in my head again and correct my mistake, "well, actually 8 now"

"Oh? Did something happen to your family?"

Before I can answer Lord Liam stands up from his seat abruptly

"Aitana, we are late for a meeting. I'm sure everyone had a marvelous time meeting you Ms. Volturi but my wife and I have business to attend to" He scrapes his seat against the floor and rushes out the door

"Let's continue the conversation another time" Aitana scrambles to her feet and follows her husband

After her parents leave Kay's demeanor changes completely

"Soooooo, what are you going to wear to the ball?" she puts her chin on her hand and turns to face me

"The what?" I'm lost

"Could we please move to the living room, these chairs aren't comfy" Jackson says as he gets up and starts pulling my chair

I stand up and am relieved when I finally notice I'm not the only one wearing an elegant dress for mere breakfast

"I would love to but I need to go shopping for said dress since X and I will be leaving tomorrow, excuse us," Penny says when we meet them at the door

She gives me a brief hug and leaves her hands on my shoulder, "I can't wait until you are officially part of the family Alexandra" she smiles and leaves the room with X while I stand there in shock

I turn to Jackson with questioning eyes

"Let's go," Kay skips out the door with me and Jackson going behind her

"Didn't you tell them?" I ask while we follow Kay

He rubs his neck anxiously and just looks up ahead. Enough for an answer

"Kay my living room, not the main one," She nods and skips up the stairs

 _His? There's more than one? I know to normal people I would be considered rich, but I don't fit in here._ I shake my head to clear my brain of thought

One of the many staff members opens the door to a modern-looking living room that is somehow even bigger than the bedroom I stayed in

Kay plops down on the big couch and for a second I fear her dress riping 

"So, if you haven't gotten a dress for the ball yet we should go out shopping together" She chirps and starts browsing through the channels

"I don't even know what you're talking about Kay. What ball?" I sit down next to her

"The annual Winter Ball? Have you never heard of it?" She turns off the Tv when she doesn't find anything interesting and turns to me

"The only Winter Ball I know of it back in the day when the Lord used to hold a Ball that was called that but it wasn't even in winter. As far as I'm aware that stopped centuries ago"

She points at me, "Well it didn't and it is next month. Don't tell me Jackson didn't invite you,"

We both turn to look at the man in question

"Thanks a lot sis, I was planning on doing that but you ruined it" He groans and throws his head back on the sofa

"Well I saved you time. So I'll take it you don't have a dress?"

"It depends. Can I wear something like this dress?" I move my hands over my body

"Not in a million years. This is an old-style ball. Big puffy dresses type of thing. It doesn't have to be puffy but it needs to be that fancy"

"Then I do not have one for this occasion," she starts smiling, "I can tell I'm going to regret this"

"Yep. Since we can't find those type of dresses just anywhere we have them custom made so you will have to stand up all day, getting your measurements done, trying on samples, blah blah blah" By the looks of it the men have to do something similar

I groan, "Why do I have to do this?"

Kay stands up and grabs my hand to twirl me around and face Jackson, "Because you're his erasthai"

I imagine myself in a ballgown, dancing with Jackson, and it doesn't seem so bad anymore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unless I say otherwise, the POV will be from Alexandra's


	13. ~12~

"Ok so your dress is the indigo one, and the turquoise one belongs to Kay. Is that ok with you girls?" Ramona says as she peeks from her big designing tablet

I wasn't very keen on the idea of getting fitted for a big dress in general but if I had to might as well do it with someone I know. Ramona has taken it upon herself for the past few decades to design all types of clothes so she was more than happy to oblige with my request. Once I told Kay, she wanted one for her herself and Ramona had no objection. So now we are at our last fitting before the ball in a few days

"Yes! Perfect! Thank you so much, Ms. Ramona!" Kay jumps up and hugs my aunt

"Happy to help darling, go try them on, I want to see my masterpieces," she shooed us away to the dressing rooms in her little boutique

Once I get inside I finally open up the duffle bag. I left everything in hands of Ramona. The design, the color, patters, everything. I did ask her for the color because Kay wanted me to match with Jackson but that's the only thing I know from this dress

I open the bag and my jaw drops

"Ramona I haven't even tried on this dress and I can already notice it is skin-tight! Was it this?!" I yell at her as I exit the fitting room with the dress in hand

It's a purple dress that's completely fitted until after the knee section, with a slit that reaches almost mid-thigh. It has a makeshift cape coming from the single thick strap that crosses my chest. The cape has almost unnoticeable purple beads scattered all around making the dress seem elegant but too extravagant for any normal party

" _That,_ " she points to my dress smirking, "is your dress. Do you not like it?"

" _This,_ " I point to the dress, "can't be my dress. Isn't supposed to be puffy or something? This is too tight and the slit is too high up" I huff

"Actually," Kay says from behind me, "we might do an old-style ball with ballgowns but there was never a rule saying they had to be puffy"

I turn around to analyze Kay. Her dress is a dark-ish turquoise dress. It's really big at the bottom and looks straight out of a fairy tale. Like mine, it's fairly simple, the top is also wrapped in one shoulder and in the correct lighting look like it has some time of shimmer to it

"Wow..." I say. I'm not a fan of big dresses but it looks amazing on Kay, she looks like if she was a princess

"Do you like it?" Ramona asks with a smile, very well knowing she does

"I do! I've had many dresses made by many different people and this is one of my favorites. It's big and flowy but not heavy. It is also very comfortable and easy to put on and take off by myself. Thank you" She does a curtsy and that's all I need to be convinced she _is_ a princess

"But, as I was saying. That is more than appropriate for the ball Alexandra" 

I look at the dress one more time with a grimace. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful dress, it really is, but I don't like dresses. I don't do tight things. And _come on,_ if I sit down with this you will be able to see my underwear with how high the opening in the dress is.

"Don't you have anything else?" I ask Ramona

Both Kay and Ramona glare at me before pushing me inside the fitting room

All I do is sigh and undress to try on what they call a dress

I don't even look myself in the mirror, I don't want to see it so I just walk out with my arms out as if asking 'happy?'

Kay's mouth hangs open and Ramona just sends me her typical smirk

"Now...do you have anything else?" I like the fabric of the dress and everything, it's soft and comfy but it's too much for me

They simutaniosly facepalm 

"Did you even look at yourself in the mirror?" Kay asks

"Nope" I cross my arms

Ramona runs off and I can already see what she's going to do

"Nu-uh, I don't want to look- Holy shit" I am turned around by Kay to face a mirror Ramona brought

What the fuck? I usually don't like how dresses look on me but this looks very nice. I like how the color goes with my hair as well as how the cape goes only from one shoulder. I still feel like the slit goes a little too high up but this dress makes me somehow feel...powerful

I sigh, "Fine!" I throw my hands up in the air meaning I'll wear it

"Good, now, both of you go get your heels and put them on, I need to see if the lengths are ok"

After another hour of being in the boutique Kay and I finally leave 

"I'm exhausted," I say as we get in the car

Lately, Jackson's been very busy with formal duties but I can't complain. He's put time aside for me and we've been on a few dates. He's also let me use his car to go places and now I really want to buy one

"Why? We barely left the house 4 hours ago" Kay says as she turns the radio on

"Exactly. 3 hours too long," I back out of the parking lot and start driving towards the mansion. Kay and I have hung out a lot lately, we've even included Samantha in it but she's been too infatuated with someone to hang out with us. Dariana left again but said she would be back in a month so I've been by myself at school. Turns out Cole is Jackson's subordinate? I don't know how that works considering how dumb he acts most of the time, but because of that he also spends all of his time with Jackson

Anyway, I'm grateful Jackson pretty much owns a part of the mansion because like that I don't accidentally run into Lord Liam. I don't feel safe around him. Kay and Jackson have dragged me to their house so they make sure I'm not uncomfortable. Ms. Aitana has been giving me a few etiquette lessons so we've gotten closer. She's a very sweet and kind-hearted person so it's very sad to see how her husband treats her. We don't live in the 1940s anymore, a woman can be independent and she doesn't need to have a man there telling her what to do. Over the past few days I've found out that that day she asked to stay in the office she was scared to ask, after all, she fears Lord Liam. She isn't allowed to leave the house either so I've been asking the things that she misses and brought them to her in secret it's my way of apologizing for the life she has

"Can we please go to the mall?" Kay asks shyly next to me

"Really? You have a whole closet that is bigger than my room women" 

"I don't even like half of those clothes" she pouts. She may look my age but she acts way younger

"Fine let's make a deal. If you finally clean out your closet I will take you shopping for a whole day" I reason with her. She knows how much I hate leaving my house to do anything. Especially go shopping

The poor girl doesn't know how to drive either. She's so used to everyone doing everything for her she can barely take care of herself

"Deal! Will you help me though?" she doesn't want for me to answer, "I don't care I'll do it," She's so happy she's pretty much jumping in her seat

I chuckle and speed to the mansion, I want to lay down for a bit 

Once we walk in through the main entrance Layla is already there taking our bags and taking them away to the changing room for the day of the ball

I run toward the livingroom not caring what anyone says, and plop face down on the big comfy couch

"You're a real introvert," Kay lays across my back

I'm too tired to even move her so I just let her be. After a while, I feel the weight lifted off my back so I decide to finally turn around. Not even a second goes by and I feel someone jump on top of me but it isn't Kay because they are double the weight

"Hey! What the fuck, get off me!" I try to push the body off of me but I am turned to my side and spooned

I lift my leg up and smash it down to hit wherever I can. Whoever I hit groans and lets me go. I rush to the other side of the room 

"Bloody hell Lexa why did you have to kick me?!" Jackson says as he lays in fetal position

"Oh my God! I am so sorry! But why did you jump when I was _sleeping?_ You scared the living shit out of me" I go back to him and try to rub his arm to comfort him somehow 

I turn my head to see Kay dying of laughter on the floor by the door

"I won't hug you abruptly. Noted" Jackson says in a pained voice 

I crawl next to him and hug him to apologize, I don't even know where I hit him but I did drop all my weight on him so it must've hurt

I wrap my arms around him for a moment before he turns me again and is now hovering over me

My eyes widen from the sudden movement before I glare at him

"You liar!" I didn't even hurt him he's just a whiny baby

He goes to the side and hugs me tight

I squirm trying to get out of his grip

"Jackie let me go, I'm mad at you" I try to move but he's stronger than me

I stop trying after a while and let him do whatever. After about 5 minutes of him cuddling me, he gives me a kiss on the cheek and lets me go 

I stand up from the couch and stretch, "You done with today's meetings?" I ask as he stands up again

"About that..." He rubs the back of his neck

"Jackson go back to your meetings right now, your dad already hates me enough, I don't need him blaming me for you slacking off" I turn him around and start pushing him towards the door 

"But I don't want to" He whines and turns around to hug me but I dodge him. I grab his arm and twist it making him turn back around and go down on one knee

"Well you will," I say as I let his arm go and pat his head

"You're mean" Is all I hear before he leaves again

"And you're lazy" I raise my voice the slightest bit to make sure he heard me

"You guys fight like an old married couple," Kay says making me jump. I'd forgotten she was in the room with us

I close my eyes and rub my temples, "He makes me feel old and married"

"Wow," Kay says sarcastically

"What do you mean 'wow'" I mock her tone 

"First time you don't deny the whole relationship thing. Usually, you would just tell me to shut up and not say anything about you and Jackson" She shrugs but I can see the smirk playing on her lips

"Oh...well..." I don't know what to say because she's right. Why didn't I deny it?

"What's changed? Come here," she pats the big loveseat next to her, "talk with good old Kay"

I scrunch my nose, "Don't ever say that again" I walk towards her and sit down

"So, what's wrong" She looks at me with serious eyes

"On our last date, he asked me to become an official couple" I look down and play with my nails

"That's it?" Kay says with a bored expression

"Well _I'm so sorry_ I wasn't able to fulfill your want for drama" I roll my eyes

"Whatever. I still don't see what changed you? or why you're overthinking all of this"

"Well, I have an ity bity inner fight right now. Wether to be with Jackie or not. Nothing against him, please don't misunderstand me he's a really sweet guy and I do consider myself very lucky to be able to spend time with him, but I still have engraved in my head that I should hate you guys. It's a stupid reason, I know, but can you blame me? Almost all of my 1,800 years of living I've hated wolves" I sigh not knowing what else to say 

She stays quiet and I can pretty much see the gears turning in her head, thinking what's the right thing to say, "I would love to know the reason for such distaste but I'm aware we aren't at that point yet so all I can say is, do what feels right. By what you just told me, there _is_ a part of you that wants to accept Jackson's offer so do the same thing you are doing right now. Try it out. And before you say you'll feel bad because it won't be genuine don't bullshit me because both you and I know you want to. Keep in mind my brother won't force you to do anything you don't want, he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he did, but on a completely biased note, tell him yes" She gives me a soft smile

I smile back at her and nod. She's right, there is a part of me that has become attached to Jackson and want to be with him so might as well go for it 

The next few hours are spent between me and Kay just goofing around and snacking 

When I look at my phone it's already 9 and by the time I get home and do all I have to do it will probably be 11. Today was tiring and tomorrow I have school so I need to leave

As if she read my thoughts Kay stands up, "Come on let's leave it all on a single table to make it easier for Layla and I'll walk with you to go find Jackson"

We clean up quickly and get my things before we go around the house looking for Jackson. We bump into Cole and he lets us know he is in front of the house greeting some important guests. I thank him and head to the big entrance

Before opening the door we hear voices outside. I can make out Jackson's, Ms. Aitana's, and Lord Liam's but there are about 4 more people out there with them

Kay and I decide to stay back and wait for him to be done. Once wee hear footsteps coming towards us so we open the doors for them

The first thing my eyes land on is the pretty petite girl hanging onto Jackson's arm. She's very human by smell but she could pass by as a vampire or werewolf if it wasn't for that. She has very shiny reddish hair that goes very nicely with her emerald-green eyes. Her skin tone is very fair, almost pale, but it suits her. Her nose is tiny but perfectly shaped for her symmetrical face. Her body suits her well because it didn't make her look chubby but not too skinny that it made her look disproportional. I take a chance and look at the other three people. There's a guy that looks a little older than me, but he's a vampire, his red eyes are impossible to hide. Aside from the eyes, his features are very similar to the girl's. Behind them, there are two other people, a woman, and a man, around the age of Ms. Aitana and they are vampires as well, The woman has black hair and the man has ginger toned hair. They couldn't be the children's parents, they are vampires

I don't know how long I was staring at them for but it couldn't have been too long because they hadn't finished stepping inside the house. 

I'm brought out of my thoughts by a melodic voice

"Lord Liam, could I request for this young lady to be my maid for my stay here? Aside from her attire, she looks well enough to serve me" the petite girl says while extending her free hand towards me

I try to keep my face of disgust to myself, this isn't the place or time

"If you excuse me, I do not work here. I'm sure someone else will be delighted to serve you. I will be taking my leave now," I turn towards Jackson and take a short bow, "Jackson" 

Jackson calls out to me as move my feet to turn, "Lexa, wait," I stop where I am and cross my arms waiting for him

He takes the girl's arm and slips his away, "If you excuse me, I need to take my leave now," 

He does the same bow I did to him, "Father, Mr. and Mrs. Byrne"

I blink and the girl has her arms wrapped around Jackson's neck, kissing him. We both stay frozen in place. She backs away and smiles at him, "Hurry back to me Jackie"

I visibly cringe. I don't like how the nickname sounds when it comes from her. He grabs her arms, once again, and untangles himself, "Hope, I've told you many times to not call me Jackie, also please, refrain from touching me without my permission. Now I need to go"

He walks towards me and says, "Let's go"

I bow to everyone one last time and follow Jackson 

I can't say I'm exactly jealous because it was very obvious Jackson was uncomfortable around who I assume is Hope, but it still bothers me that she just threw herself at him and kissed him like nothing 

"Do you have the keys?" Jackson extends his hand towards me 

I was so caught up with myself that I didn't notice we were at the garage already 

"Oh, right. Here" I drop the keys in his hand

He stands there for a second debating something before he opens the car door for me, turns the ignition on, and runs off. It doesn't take him long to come back, he must've gone to get his backpack because he puts it in the backseat 

He gets in the car and drives off towards my house. The air in the car is very dense so I decide to hold his hand to see if it helps

He lets out a relieved sigh and I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion

"I thought you were mad at me for a second," He explains, "Hope is part of a powerful vampire family, I've known her since she was little so it's very weird for me when she pulls stunts as she did in there. I tried telling them about you earlier but my father didn't let me. I'm sorry Lexa I didn't want anything that happened in there to happen," He tightens his grip on my hand

I let a moment pass before I start laughing, "You're cute Jackie. I could see how you weren't ok with it but I appreciate you explaining" I smile

We continue our drive in comfortable silence before I remember my talk with Kay

"Jackie?" I turn towards him

"Hmm?" He turns to me for a second so I know he's listening

"I wanted to talk about what you said on our last date?" I'm sure he knows what I'm talking about but is acting as if not to hear it from me

"Does the offer still stand?" 

He smiles, "Of course it does, why? Made your mind up?"

"I did, I'd like for us to become a couple," I say. I don't know why but I just can't say girlfriend and boyfriend. I'm so used to 'no strings' that it's weird to _actually_ be with someone

"So I can now say you're my girlfriend?" He says with a small smile

I nod

"And you will stop correcting people when they say I'm your boyfriend?" His smile widens

I scoff, "Don't make me regret this Hunter, but I think that's the meaning of being a couple, yes"

"Great!" 

The rest of the way I turn the radio on and sing along to what I know. We arrive faster than I expected at my house which I'm thankful for because I need my bed

"I'll see you tomorrow Jackie," I open my door to get out

"Alexandra, can I ask you for a favor?" I turn around and nod

"Could I please stay over today? I really don't want to go back to Hope" He grimaces and shivers slightly 

I laugh and lean in to give him a kiss. I turn the car off and get out

"Come on, my mom is probably already getting the room ready" I tap the hood of the car

He grabs his backpack and walks alongside me

Yeah, I like this.


End file.
